Will Assemblywoman Sally Lieber actually introduce her much
ballyhooed anti-spanking bill? Her staffers report that the phones
in her office rang ceaselessly in response to her proposal to make
the spanking of children younger than four a misdemeanor punishable
by a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.
Spanking is something that must go,
Say some psychologists, although
Character building is a feat
Sometimes accomplished through the seat.
~ Edward Anthony
Will Assemblywoman Sally Lieber actually introduce her much ballyhooed anti-spanking bill? Her staffers report that the phones in her office rang ceaselessly in response to her proposal to make the spanking of children younger than four a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.
Jordan Riak of Alamo wrote to The Dispatch that Assemblywoman Lieber is on the right track. And deep down, the spankers know it, too.”
Well, this is one spanker who does not know that Assemblywoman Lieber is on the right track. I think the bill is a bad idea and a stupid idea.
Properly speaking, I am an ex-spanker. My children are now 16, 20, and almost 23 years old. The eldest is a second lieutenant; the other two are college students. I no longer spank any of them.
There was also a time in my life when I was a pre-spanker. This was before I had children. (No coincidence that Assemblywoman Lieber is childless.) I remember glaring at mothers in the grocery store if they yelled at or (horrors!) spanked their children.
Fast forward a few years: with three small children of my own, I began to smile sympathetically at mothers who yelled at or spanked their children in the grocery store. I also developed a non-spanking method of discipline that worked amazingly well.
No lie: from the time my children learned to walk until they left for college, I could say to them sternly, “Time out!” The child would immediately, without complaining or disputing, go to the time-out spot (in the hallway under a glowering reproduction of a self-portrait of Henri Matisse.)
I would set the timer for as many minutes as the child was years old, and the child would stay until the timer went “Ding!” Then the child would come to me and say, “I had a time out because …” I hit my brother. I used a rude voice. Whatever the infraction was.
But the only reason my children went to time out and stayed there was because they knew from bitter experience that the alternative was a sore bottom. They also got spanked for life-threatening stunts such as running into the street.
Please note: my children were spanked: open palm, on the butt, over clothes, one swat per year of age maximum. (Anne can only remember ever getting two. I can remember dealing out as many as six.)
They were never beaten or whipped. Beating a child is illegal, and more importantly, wrong.
But Assemblywoman Lieber cannot distinguish between a spanking and a beating. She wishes to prohibit “any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that.” “I think it’s pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger,” Lieber said. “Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?”
I can argue that it is necessary to spank a 2- or 3-year-old. It was at least necessary for me to spank my 2- and 3-year-olds. They do not listen to sweet reason at that age. I admire people who manage to raise decent human beings without spanking. I have not met many.
It is her apparent inability to distinguish between spanking and beating which renders Assemblywoman Lieber’s bill stupid. It is, moreover, a bad bill because it would be a massive government intrusion into the private lives of families.
Lastly, the bill would be bad for kids. Far too many kids and adults these days are rude, badly-behaved, out-of-control brats. They are brats because they have no self-discipline. They have not developed self-discipline because they have not been disciplined. After graduation they may at last learn that no employer or college will tolerate rude, out-of-control brats.
Assemblywoman Lieber may lecture me on the proper care of cats. She has no expertise and no credibility on the proper care and rearing of children. It is absolutely frightening that the people of Mountain View elected such a stupid and tyrannical know-it-all to public office. May they soon rectify that mistake.
