Stolen from an LTE to the Longview Daily News.
Parental 'wonder drug'
The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a meth lab had been found in an old house in the adjoining county. He asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?"
I replied, "I had a drug problem when I was young. I was drug to church on Sunday morning, I was drug to church for weddings and funerals, I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather."
"I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best efforts in everything that was asked of me."
"I was drug to the kitchen sink if I used profanity to have my mouth washed with soap. I was drug to pull weeds in Mom's vegetable and flower beds or help in the field. I was drug to help some neighbor or friends to help mow their lawn, fix a clothesline or chop wood in their time of need, and if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed."
Those drugs are still in my veins and they effect my behavior in everything I do or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack or heroine; and if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.
God bless the parents who drugged us.
Bob Sandberg
Longview
Honestly, I have a little problem with these kinds of across the board endorsements of corporal punishment with children. First of all, I need to establish that I am not against spanking, however I am against beating, spanking in anger as a means to assuage a parent's frustration and applying this kind of punishment when it doesn't fit the crime.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do hear in this posting is that this man's parents paid attention to him. They set limits, with consequences if those limits were crossed. They knew what he was doing, they involved him in their lives and spent time teaching him how to behave appropriately in diverse social situations. This is truly what we need to be doing with our children.
Each child is different. Some need the consequence to be more in depth than others and it is the parent's job to know their child well enough to meet out consequences that are effective, fit the act of disrespect or disobedience and produce a positive outcome. It has been proven many times that punishment is the least effective means of behavior modification. However when raising children, it is more than just changing behavior. It involves molding the heart and character of the child, knowing them and encouraging them to be the person they were created to be. That is the parent's job and when the parent doesn't pay attention, the child suffers.
Spanking is not the answer, it is a tool in a repertoire of tools that a parent has to socialize their child. Above all, relationship between parent and child has to be the major one.