[Whit]

     I thought I might resurrect this thread considering the impending change in Juju's family.

     My views on spanking are pretty simple. When I was a kid I loved it. I'd do something wrong at school I'd get swats. Then I was free to go back to doing whatever I got the swats for. It was easy, it doesn't really hurt and once it's done you have been officially punished. So it would be improper to do more to you, and to continue to remind you that you're still being punished for whatever would be idiotic. I hated it when my mom signed the form saying the school couldn't spank me anymore. I continued to do whatever I felt like but, the punishments became a bigger pain in the ass. (Obviously not literally) Of course once I established that I didn't mind detention I was free to ignore the teachers/principles again. I still would have preferred swats over detention though...
     With my own kids I only remember handing out one spanking in the last seven years or so. (Okay, beyond five my memory is shaky) This was about a year ago and my daughter was five. My daughter had been getting in trouble continuously for months about taking off her shoes whenever we were at anyone's home. It's really inconvenient when you stop in to a friends place to borrow, loan or return something and your kids shoes go missing inside of two minutes. So one day I'm helping some friends move into a new place, my daughter is playing with their daughter in a workroom/shed behind the house. There is broken glass from the previous tenants in the yard and around the shed. I had specifically told my daughter not to take her shoes off and even explained why. When it was time to leave she comes out, no shoes. I grabbed her up with one hand and swatted her butt with the other and carried her back to her shoes. I haven't had any trouble with the shoe thing since. Her brother witnessed this and was on his best behavior for a month afterwards, even though he didn't get in any trouble whatsoever.
     Thus my opinion is that the threat of spanking is good, but use of spanking as a regular punishment is useless.
     Also, I'm a big believer in the idea that certainty of punishment is more effective than severity of punishment. If they know they'll get punished, even in a minor way, they just don't commit the offense. If they think they might get away with it, then they'll continue to do it. No matter how much they get punished for it.
     Oh, I'm big into talking about what they do right as well as what they do wrong. I was just more into talking about disipline at the moment.