On a serious note, I was spanked as a young child and I'm a better person for it. I think I have a lot more self-control by habit than if I was given a punishment I could find ways around (eg. grounding, going to bed early). There's nothing worse than a sore bottom at that innocent stage.

It bothers me that parents are not given the same amount of freedom they were back when I recieved my final spanking. A slight stinging pain that will wear off in a matter of minutes is not child abuse.

skip to 1:30, hilarious

EDIT:



also about stupid kids, skip to :55

this.

If this thread was created simply to debate whether kids should be beaten or not why don't you head over to http://www.musicbanter.com/current-e...-okay-not.html

I'm sick of opening new threads only to see they contain the exact same content and redundant arguments as numerous others.

I think when you go back a ways parents definitely gave themselves a lot more slack to do their job and generally were less neurotic about it. Seen and not heard was a favourite phrase of my grandfather, and in general the parenting philosophy my father was raised in was that children should fit around their parents' life, the polar opposite of today. It made him a strong and self reliant type of man, but his memories of childhood are much more mixed than mine.

So to answer the question, yeah children were more tolerable because the oldies and institutions didn't have so much trouble being callous to what they wanted. Doesn't really translate into great parenting though.

As lateralus said, it can be down to bad parenting. But then I have a friend who has parents with the patience of a saint, very understanding, firm, good parents. Yet he got into the wrong crowd when we were younger and was a little bastard. Even when his sister was a model child. It's not always down to parenting, I think it begins with parenting though. Most of it is down to environmental influences. Thats my opinion anyways.

I disagree, I think it comes down to the person. I think if a kid is raised well then she/he will have a nice solid moral backbone (somewhere), a good amount of skill in disciplining him/herself, and a natural healthy rhythm to life. Now, considering the type of person it would take to put that in a kid (I couldn't do it), I doubt there are loads of these types of people wondering around. Yet, there are tons of healthy adults.

I think most people come across a point where they are able, and sometimes even want, to take the good from their parents and throw away the bad. Unfortunately I don't think everyone gets this chance, but that's another story. When it happens depends on the person, as everyone at their own pace and all. Anyway...

In conclusion, at a certain point, it is up to the individual. For instance, if the ideally raised 14yr old with all the gifts from his parents I listed at the start of this wanted to roll with a clearly immoral group to fit in, which I doubt he would do if he had good esteem, but anyway he could then throw away what the parents gave to him and do something else entirely. As long as he knows what he is doing, and is on the path to figuring out why, I think the parents were a success. Parents who do the opposite are failures. I have no idea the best way to go about it.

well it wasn't, so take your grinchiness elsewhere.

and then when you get there, make a new thread thats fresh and original.

I know it wasn't created for that purpose originally, but in the end that's what people were debating about. It just seems annoying having numerous threads on exactly the same thing, especially when usually it seems that any opportunity is taken to merge even vaguely similar threads *shrug* Sorry.

They are little shits. My daughter learned the word 'No' today. She hasn't grasped the full concept yet, but when she threw magazines all over the bathroom and I asked her to pick it up she said 'No!' and kicked them. She is still in the bathroom, this occured at 10am.