According to
Yahoo, there is this crack pot in California legislature (I know that is hard to believe), who wants to outlaw spanking of children under 3.
A California lawmaker says she has proposed a law that would make spanking a small child a crime to be punished by jail time or a fine.
The bill, backed by Democrat Sally Lieber of San Francisco, a member of the state legislature, would outlaw spanking children three years old or younger and carry a possible penalty of jail time or a 1,000-dollar fine.
“I think it’s pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child three years old or younger,” said Lieber, who plans to introduce the bill next week.
Now personally, I have not ever had the need or reason to spank or smack my children. My wife is fundamentally opposed to using form of physical punishment, so it has not been an issue in my house. However, we also agree that if we try other forms of punishment, discouraging behavior, negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, etc and we would consider spanking if we felt that was the only way to discipline our child. However, the point is this is our decision as parents. The right to make that decision is strictly up to the parents, I do not want under any circumstance the government telling me what I can and cannot do in my home, and this is exactly what this law begins to encroach upon.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think a parent should beat their child, I don’t think a parent should use excessive force, I don’t think a parent should put their child in danger in an effort to discipline their children. In my opinion there is a huge difference between a one-off situation of spanking and discipline versus a long term case of child abuse.I also agree with the guys over at
Dadcentric, who said the following:
Listen, I know some parents choose to spank and I know others do not. It’s your business. That is until you do some harm to your child, then it’s no longer your business. At the same time, it’s not up to the government to tell you how to parent either. As far as I can tell, abuse is still against the law and if you abuse your children, the same should be inflicted on you ten-fold. You break an arm, Vinny ovah heah breaks boat and a knee-cap fah good meazhah.
It is always funny to me that you need a license to fish, but anyone can be a parent, but hey that is just me.
