The effects of spanking may include less gray matter in certain areas of the brain that have been linked to depression, addiction and self-control.
I have had some very serious and almost friendship-ending debates over spanking with people.. I do not condone it.. I even get a little queasy when I hear people argue that people have the right to do with their kids what they want in their own homes.. Some even use the Bible to justify their punishments. Then again, lots of people use the Bible and any other religious text to justify anything..
If you’re the spanker, things can escalate too quickly and go too far too fast.. Even those parents with the best of intentions can also direct the punishment with anger—using too much force as a means to get their own vent of frustration as opposed to simply ‘teaching a lesson,’ as proponents say the method of torture punishment is..
Some from aging generations will argue that spanking never hurt them.. they will say that ‘kids these days sometimes need the paddle’ over other means of punishment.. But.. who says that parents aren’t still aggressively engaging in corporal punishment? The CNN story quotes a survey from 2012—not long ago—in which half of the woman in this nation and three quarters of the men think a good ‘hard spanking’ is a good course of action with a child.
Sarah Kovac points out this in her article:
Harsh corporal punishment in the study was defined as at least one spanking a month for more than three years, frequently done with objects such as a belt or paddle. Researchers found children who were regularly spanked had less gray matter in certain areas of the prefrontal cortex that have been linked to depression, addiction and other mental health disorders, the study authors say.
That’s important.. Very important.
Even more important, according to the same research, spanking led children to become more aggressive by the ages of 3 and then 5, and it had the greatest impact on a child by the age of 9.
If you’re still in favor or spanking, or whatever other painful ways to punish another human, think first.. And primarily, even ignoring the scientific evidence to show spanking does some more damage to a brain than it does a rear, think of this: Are you inflicting the pain on your son and daughter to teach them .. or to appease your own ancient instincts to hurt..?
This is a sore subject for me—no pun intended.. I was never spanked.. I was ‘poked’ hard in the shoulder to shut my little kid yapper up now and then.. but never had any painful punishments inflicted on me. All of the kids who I know did have those punishments were either mentally disturbed then, or are now..
Spanking the gray matter out of our kids
