The dictionary meaning of spanking is slapping a child on his/her buttocks as punishment by palm or implements like hair brusn.It is qouite common in the West to control unruly kids but spanking or threatenng to do so is not prevelent in India.Kids are punished by parents and techers by hitting them on any part of the antomy.and not necessarily buttocks. I am not aware how the practice of spanking arose in the West,this concept is unknown in India.Even Corporal Punishments of children which is now almost non existent in the West and still practised in the places like Malaysia.Singapore.Iran.etc.Buttocks have always been the target.It is not so in India.This was introduced in India during British rule.but not common. Members may send their views in the matter.:bonk
hullo chandra, it brings back to mind the old proverb "spare the rod and spoil the child". this was the old victorian adage which the british left behind and i heard oft quoted by my granddad (maternal - the british left india, but they forgot to take him with them - he was so british in some ways . i do not think that this is practised anymore in the west. any form of corporal punishment of children is classified as child abuse tsk and if reported, the children could be taken into council care. i am sure there are people who do occasionally spank their kids. on the other hand, i thought it was quite the norm in india for adults to hit kids, this not being all that recent a development :crazy. and what is worse is that when they lose their temper, they do not even stop to think whether they are causing any physical (leave alone psychological) damage to the child. a hard cuff on the ear could damage that organ. we hear so many instances these days of children being viciously brutalized by their teachers in school, to such an extent that they often lose their lives in their process :rant :crazy :bonk . i personally think this is just an expression of the growing frustration in adults, and what easier target to vent it on other than on hapless children :hide:?
dear moderator, i have inadvertently landed up submitting my post in duplicate (internet was slow and i pressed the key twice). please delete the duplicate post. thanking you and sorry for the trouble. thanking you,
I don't know about the current Indian scenario because I only spend limited time there now. When I was child (in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region>) I have been hit by my parents (hated it) but never been spanked. I personally don’t like physical punishment of any kind even if it is in the form of spanking. I understand that spanking is not soo bad as hitting but still I think it will affect the child. I don’t think it sends the right kind of message. I believe in other types of disciplines like taking away toys/gadgets, withholding privileges they enjoy like TV time, etc. Reward scheme works wonders too!!!
When a child makes something unusual, parents should not directly spank their child. Doing so, without explaining to them after will not help them to understand the reason you spank them but instead it will cause anger or clash between your relationship. Embarassing them by calling them out or throwing their mistakes to their face ungraciously just provokes more unpleasant exchanges that are harder to recover from. Sometimes a simple conversation will do. Be vocal about how you feel for your child. They need to hear it, even though they would never admit that. So I don't usually go for beating my child.