My parents spent plenty of time reasoning and explaining things to me. They grounded me, restricted things, took things away, and physically disciplined me if the fight or situation called for it. Sometimes I was a rotten bastard and the situation WOULD call for it. The kids I knew who were like me and didn't have to fear any sort of physical discipline became medicated by their parents when things got out of hand at school and at home. Ritalin, Adderall, Xanax, you name it. Those were the kids that became more and more messed up in the head as they were getting older. In the end, I'm not the rotten, little punk I used to be. It's highly debateable if I would have become the man I am today without a hands on approach by my parents as far as punishment and discipline went. If you could go back to my junior year in high school, I don't doubt my teachers and administrators would have told you that they thought I would have went to a juvenile facility and, later, jail at this age. Even though my grades were good in school (which is something of a paradox), I was a rotten punk until I hit the age of 17. The one thing that kept me in line from time to time was the fear of coming home and getting a whooping administered to me.
Now I have two degrees, I'm in a stable relationship, I don't have any substance abuse issues, and I'm saving toward my first house. They did a wonderful job of rounding me into a productive member of society. Like I said before, there's no one correct way to raise a child. Every child is different and the methodology for raising and disciplining them will follow suit. The significant aspect of corporal punishment is when the line is crossed and punishment turns into abuse. That appears to be the case here. How a court of law in Texas will look at this is beyond me. But those pictures are pretty damning. And this is coming from a "victim" of corporal punishment.
Dan Shanoff ✔ @danshanoff
