Ask Dali Mama

DEAR DALI MAMA:

What do you think of spanking? Is it bad to spank a child, even lightly? That was how I was brought up and I am doing fine but I have heard that spanking children, even lightly, is not good for them. What do you think?

–Mom (United States)

DEAR MOM:

Although many of us were brought up being spanked as discipline (myself included), I prefer to teach children through positive reinforcement. Spanking, even light spanking, is still violence and is humiliating and disempowering to boot. Is that really what we want to teach our young people? To NOT do things because of fear of punishment rather than to strive for excellence for other self-motivated reasons? Some studies suggest that spanking might even be related to physical issues such as sciatica.

Here’s an interesting site by Jordan Riak I came across from Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE) that addresses spanking: http://nospank.net/pt2011.htm. Read it if you want and take what resonates for you.