Whoopins

[BarryBobPosthole]

So AD pleaded no contest for switching his kid. There's still no answers. And I think the law in Texas basically copped out. Is it legal or illegal to take a switch to your kid?

And don't bring up that picture that made it all over social media either. there's no way to administer a 'whoopin' on a kid with a switch without leaving those marks. Believe me, I KNOW from firsthand experience. Or maybe firstass experience is a better way to put it. By the way, I also got bustings in school with a wooden paddle that left big bruises across my legs and ass cheeks too. Is that against the law now too?

I think what shocks me the most is how shocked so many people claim to be. You'd have to lead a pretty sheltered life to not know that any kids who grew up with 'strict' parents got their asses whipped with belts, wooden spoons, switches, paddles, or whatever was handy. My grandpa whipped my ass with a razor strop when I was THREE. Was it abuse? Fuck no.

I've said before, I didn't whip my own kids because I don't believe it makes that much more difference in how you deliver punishment. My kids lost privileges, got lectured, and got their feelings hurt. My eldest son took a swing at me once when I punished him for stealing something from a Walmart and he got boxed upside the ears with an open hand. I challenged my old man once too. Once was all it took. My old man (my step Dad) used to beat me like there was no tomorrow and left much more horrible marks on me than what AD's kid got and that's probably why I knew it did more harm than good. I also left home at 17 and was gone for three years with no contact with my parents at all after the last one. That was as close to abuse as I'll claim to have suffered, and yeah I suffered.

I'm not lobbying for people to whip their kids. But I am lobbying for people to mind their own business. I don't believe getting whippings permanently scars kids just like I don't believe they do much good either. It's not the law's business until a line has been crossed. I guess that's the grey area that I myself don't understand where it is. We say we don't want a nanny state. And yet we let this busybody shit go on.

Whaddayouthink?

BKB

[Buckrub]

AD can't play, and Ray Lewis is headed to the HOF. That's why I don't watch too much pro football.

[Hombre]

I got whooopins, and to this day I can tell you it wasn't ever for anything I didn't deserve. I'm with you BBP I didn't spank my kids a much, but not because I was against it more that other things seemed to work better. In my own case taking things away or grounding me didn't really work because I'd just do what I wanted anyway. I think it really depends on the kid. Both of mine, knock on wood, seem to be legitimately concerned when they disappoint either parent. Both react well to losing privileges. I can tell you if they didn't I'd find a different way.

[Captain]

Whoopins'

I thought this was gonna be another election thread...

[Big Muddy]

I've said it before....if my Dad hadn't beat my azz to a pulp, at least once a day, until I was about 13 years old, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be in prison, at this very moment....I was a notoriously rebellious young'un....it's amazing how a piece of hay baler belt or a gin strap will grab and hold your attention. ;)

[Hombre]

My least favorite was garage duty. Anytime I'd come home late and generally drinking I'd get woken up at 6:00AM. You had to pull everything out of the garage. Bikes, mowers, stuff off the shelves, stuff that was just generally sitting around the walls, nothing could be left in the garage. Then sweep out the garage, wipe down any shelving and reorganize everything. It was a tough gig on 100 degree days hungover. Usually had me puking beside the building. Many weekends I got to clean it back to back. We had the cleanest garage in the neighborhood I can say that.

[Thumper]

I guess it was a different era. I got my ass whooped more times than I can remember ... and like has been said, I deserved every one of them. Same for school, two people handled the paddling ... the Principle and the coach. I remember each started out with the same paddles (made by the wood shop teacher) ... big wooden paddles with large holes drilled in 'em. I never will forget the day coach got a new paddle ... a new-fangled fiberglass job that was kinda thin and that thing would literally wrap itself around your ass when he took a swing at you! It got to the point, everyone tried to have the Principle dish out the licks as that fiberglass paddle was definitely a deterrent!

At home, my mom was always the one to dish out the licks. Dad's belt was one of the worst. That long-handled wooden spoon sucked as did the switches off the "switch bush" just outside the back door. The occasional wire clothes-hanger sucked big weenies also! The odd thing is, mom would whoop the crap out'ta me, but my dad never once gave me an ass-whoopin'. Just a stern talk and "that look" of disappointment was all it took from him. Afterwards, I always wished he'd just go ahead and whoop my ass as knowing I'd disappointed him was the worst punishment he could ever have dished out.

My grandfather was the one with the razor strop ... kids these days have no clue what that is even ... much less getting smacked with one. What made ass-whoopin's even worse when I was a kid was the fact I grew up in Florida. The "uniform of the day" was a thin pair of shorts ... that's it ... no shirt, no shoes ... just thin cotton shorts. There was no other padding than my tightie-whities! What hurt the most was getting that belt/switch/strop, whatever across the back of those bare legs!

That said, I smacked my son's butt a few times with my open hand, but most of the time a stern scolding was enough to have him bawling like a baby. I guess we had much the same relationship I had with my dad ... just the disappointment I showed him was more than enough punishment.

I have no hard feelings from the ass-whoopin's I got growing up. We didn't really have anything that could be taken away as punishment. Maybe my bicycle, but that was about it. We barely had tv, much less any video games, cell phones, etc.

[Big Skyz]

There is no miracle in the fact that I survived getting whooped and whooped often as a kid. The miracle is that my parents survived me. I was literally Hell on wheels until about the 6th grade. My kindergarten teacher once told my mom, right in front of me; "That kid will be in jail or dead by the time he's 21." Not a very nice thing for her to say about a kindergartner, but in hind sight she probably had good reason to say it. By 6th grade I got tired of being in the principal's office every other day so I chilled out. Still absolutely hate school from a student's perspective. It is one of the reasons I became a teacher to try and make school more enjoyable for students. That has worked out pretty well so far. I did the spanking thing with my oldest two children, however it only happened a couple times and I found better methods for discipline. I did try to spank my second oldest boy a time or two. He's just stand there and stare at me with this look on his face like "is that all you got?" It absolutely did not work at all with him. Grounding him to his room for an hour or two absolutely drove him crazy though and worked exceptionally well. By the time my 3rd child came along I had given up on the whole spanking/whooping thing altogether. Interestingly enough, my 4 youngest give me a whole heckuva lot less grief than my oldest two kids did/do.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I will admit this. One of the things I loved about Christmas was buying shit for my kids that I knew would really bother them when I took it away from them.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Now that is downright sick. Geez man. I hope Daniel cold cocks you if/when he reads that.

[Big Skyz]

Got a double post for some weird reason.

[Arty]

I got spanked as a kid. I also got beat a few times. I lived through it.

I have spanked both of my children. The older one got it more than my youngest one.
One thing I have NEVER done... Is spank them when I'm angry about whatever it was that happened, or whatever it was they did.
If done correctly, I think that it creates a fearful respect for authority... Which I think in my case, with having two boys, is a good lesson for them.

Whenever I have spanked them it's always been a very disciplined, deliberate process. They go to their room and sit and think on it for a bit. Then the discipline occurs. Then they sit while they cry it off. Then I come back, talk to them about what happened, tell them I love them, pray with them. Hug them. And then it's over.

If a parent hits a kid while their mad.... Well I won't say child abuse but I will say a BIG shame on them.

[Chicken Dinner]

I purposefully haven't looked at the pictures, but I've read that he drew blood. Since you admit that there is a line, I guess the line for me is drawing blood on a four year old. For me, there's just no way that's a proper form of discipline for a child of that age. That's not a spanking. That's a beating. (Hell, you can't even beat your dog and not go to jail...)

[BarryBobPosthole]

I can't imagine there is a way to spank a child with a switch and not raise those kind of whelts. And its not like he whipped the kid with a cat 'o nine tails. You and I might agree that for us, that kind of whipping goes over the line. The thing that's in question IMO is do we want the law involved in deciding that's over the legal line or not. And a spanking is a beating regardless of the physical results as far as marks. So all spankings are beatings when you come right down to it. I mean hell, wateboarding leaves no physical marks either. Do we think that's okay because it doesn't draw blood?

BKB

[Buckrub]

Only if they need it.

[Chicken Dinner]

Waterboarding a four year old? No. Waterboarding an "enemy combatant" outside the US? Not torture IMO. Maybe some day in person (over some corn liquor), I'll tell you my one degree of separation story about waterboarding.

[Buckrub]

You apparently have never been around some of my family when they were four year olds...................

[BarryBobPosthole]

I only used waterboarding as a silly overboard comparison. What I was really trying to say is we really can't define abuse based on the physical marks it leaves. Or can we? That seems to be what everyone is reacting to.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

It seems like that's the standard in a lot of jurisdictions for suspected domestic abuse. If there's a physical mark, somebody's going for a ride.