Spanking and discipline

Editor’s note - this thread is being re-posted to allow the discussion to continue.

There’s been plenty of discussion about the Coeur d’Alene mom who got a ticket for injury to a child during last week’s Fourth of July parade.

Witnesses said Melissa Farrell was “smacking” her daughter, according to Thursday’s story in The Spokesman-Review, but the mother of three said she “simply swatted her 22-month-old daughter, Laila, on her bottom after struggling to keep the child from running out” into the street during the parade.

My focus in this blog entry isn’t on the mom or whether or not she was abusive; I just want to start a conversation about spanking – on whether or not it’s an appropriate form of discipline.

Nancy Shute of U.S. News and World Report recently wrote about this topic. In “A Good Parent’s Dilemma: Is Spanking Bad?” she noted that many parents think it’s OK to occasionally swat your child on the bottom.

But corporal punishment is actually considered illegal in many countries — including Sweden, Spain and Germany.

What do you think?