Day 7: Spanking

It used to be OK to spank your children. I have always thought that hitting a child to correct an undesirable behavior is wrong. I remember contemplating the logic of corporal punishment at a fairly young age and determined it to be fundamentally hypocritical. I still hold this belief and as a parent I do not hit my children. Canada has a spanking law and although it does not fully outlaw striking a child as a parenting technique, the law does prevent the use implements and puts age restrictions on physical discipline. The law's main enforcements comes by giving the courts discretion to decide what is "reasonable force".

Reasonable force is outlined in the law as follows:

(a) Corporal punishment for children under the age of two is not reasonable
and is harmful to them as it has no corrective value given the limits of their
cognitive development;
(b) Corporal punishment of teenagers is not reasonable and is harmful
because it can induce aggressive or antisocial behaviors;
(c) It is not reasonable to use implements or objects such as belts, straps, or
rulers, etc., due to the physical and emotional harm the use of such
objects cause;
(d) It is not reasonable to strike a child on their face or head due to the harm
these physical acts can cause; and,
(e) Corporal punishment must not be inhumane or degrading or harmful and
there must be no lasting bodily harm.

I really don't see the difference between adults physically correcting each other outside a bar (assault) and an angry father physically correcting his 10 year old son. For those with the argument that physical correction does not come from a place of anger are fully delusional.