LOL Sally!!!

Wow Dej, I'm glad the children are in other hands now. That's a crazy story. Thank you for sharing though, I do think there is an important lesson to be learned in the scenario.

I say spanking is ok but beating is not ok in any circumstance.

I feel like one the Supreme Court justice's opinion of porn- I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

i believe it is ok depending on what the kid did..

as a person that was spanked alot as a child... i can honestly say i deserved ever one of them. but i was always doing something stupid, bad, or really disrespectful.. i remember this one time when i was around 14 i told my mother to "blank off!" not realizing my dad was in the next room... yeah i didn't do that again... spanking kept me out of jail or worse the grave... i have no doubt in my mind if my parents had not kicked my butt i wouldn't be sitting here today..

my parent never beat me in a vicious manner but a hand or a belt across the butt really got my attention.

Spanking to me is just that little swat on the behind, or slap on the wrist. There are times when this just needs to happen (like when a 2 year old is biting his baby brother because he is getting all the attention, and time-outs aren't working!)

What some may describe as spanking, I'd consider more beating/abuse.

To me, there is nothing more exasperating than watching a young mother try to reason with her child for 1/2 hour when a quick little pat on the bottom would have caught his attention quickly. Usually they are still in diapers, so it doesn't really hurt, just gets them to realize that you mean business, and they need to stop what they are doing.

Having said that, I don't think I even did any bottom patting after my boys were 3-4 or older. My raising my voice was enough for them to know it was easier to do what they should than listen to me!

I think the word spank has such a broad interpretation. And as with anything, it also depends on the child. Sometime we need to get their attention one way or another. Sometimes there is no reasoning with children, they aren't exactly adults.

Of course, there are also some out there who have a personal philosophy against raising the voice and yelling. *sigh*..... Come live in a house full of rambunctious boys for a couple of weeks, then we'll talk

I've always called my home the Dan and Rosanne home. lol

I think you might need to gain a pound or a hundred!!

I just naturally have a loud voice. Always have, and it came in handy with my hearing-impaired son. And being mom to four boys, well, it has been hard for me to tone it down!

I don't even realize I'm talking loud, and someone will say, "Are you angry?" and then I realize I've lifted my voice up a notch too much.

Just instinctive. It did help out a lot in the classroom though. It is really hard to ignore me when I'm talking because of that loud voice.

I had a really great teacher next door to me that the kids hated. It took me years to realize why. Her voice was always so soft, that the kids had to strain to hear what she was saying. Eventually they'd give up trying because it was just too much work!

So there were probably times my boys thought maybe I was getting a little uptight, when I was just talking to them.

They are all great men now so something must have worked.