Children and Discipline - Essay Example

Your full August 11, Should Children be Spanked? Parents adopt different parenting styles with which they raise their children. Some tend to be lenient with their kids giving them space enough to make mistakes; while, some tend to be authoritative and strict toward any negative behavior their kids show. The former type believes in treating negative behavior with arguments and communication; while the latter type of parents believe in scolding and spanking. Whatever the parenting style, the aim is to discipline the child so that he comes out as a perfect citizen.

This argumentative paper supports the fact that spanking does not help in the elimination of negative behavior in kids. Spanking spoils the child just like extreme pampering does. When a child does something bad that irritates the parent, the last thing that the parent should do is spanking the child because this way the child gets used to spanking and he grows out of the fear. In other words, he stops fearing spanking anymore. Whenever he would do something bad, he would think that all that his parent is going to do is spanking and nothing else, and since that is a routine so there is nothing to worry about.

When he is tackled with love, he would stop himself from doing anything that would spark such anger in the parent that could result in hitting. Spanking also tends to stop the child from respecting the parent. A kind of rebellion and hatred starts nurturing inside the child’s heart which is very dangerous when he goes in his teenage. The child stops listening to the parents’ advice seriously because he does not respect them anymore. This makes him shout at his parents and do what they do not want him to do because he has been nurturing this rebellion inside him due to constant spanking.

He stops communicating with his parents, which isolates him. This can hinder with the development of his healthy personality. Hence, parents should be told the side-effects of spanking “through education and legal reform” (“End Physical Punishment of Children”). Spanking creates inferiority complex in the child which is a frustration that grows inside him when he feels that he is not good enough to satisfy his parents. He feels that he is so bad that his parents always want to hit him.

He takes out this frustration by hitting his younger siblings. Spanking teaches him that he should make use of power to make others do what he wants them to do, so he beats and bullies his peers at school. This makes him a violent person when he grows up. To conclude, spanking is a negative reinforcement given to the child by his parents that nurtures in him hatred and rebellion toward his parents. “Hitting a child is wrong and a child never, ever, under any circumstances, except literal physical self-defense, should be hit” (Straus, qtd. in Cox). There can be alternatives to such corporal punishment like positive reinforcements.

Parents can tell their child that they would give him a present if he stops doing so-and-so but he would not get anything if he does not. This is the positive motivation that helps a lot more than negative reinforcements like spanking. Works CitedCox, Randy. Never, Ever Hit a Child. NeverHitAChild.ORG, 2010. Web. 11 Aug 2011. .“End Physical Punishment of Children.” Discipline at Home. The Center for Effective Discipline, n.d. 11 Aug 2011. < http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=athome-main>.