I had a neighbor that has a master’s degree in Child Development and she would preach at us with the same misguided and deluded point of view expressed in the article "why you shouldn't hit your kids". However, what she failed to realize is that she had the WORST kid in the neighborhood. The child, at 5 years old, would curse at her mother and would actually throw haymaker swings at her mother. Meanwhile her mother is trying to “explain” things to her.

I am not condoning abuse or even a slap in the face but a smack in the butt just to get the child’s attention is a great tool. Even several open hand smacks in the butt (enough to sting but not to bruise) as punishment is a fabulous attitude adjuster.

The author is using the umbrella of Science to preach passivism as the medieval preachers used religion to preach persecution for those that didn’t follow the “good word”. The key is a good diversity of punishments, discipline approaches and behavior adjustments. If you rule out an obvious course of action then you will be quicker to medicate the child’s behavior away. I would rather smack my kids on the butt once in a while then turn them into medicated zombies like many parents have done.

The author implies that if I swat my kid in the butt as punishment for running into the street is going to cause an increased aggression, mental-health problem and/or even cancer is absolutely ludicrous. To the readers I say be wary of the self righteous that confuse the occasional paddling with abuse. It would be like saying that the occasional beer is the same as alcoholism.