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January 19, 2007

Spank your child ... go to jail [updated]

California's granola contingent in the state legislature is at it again

California would become the first state to explicitly ban spanking for children younger than 4 under legislation to be introduced next week.

Slapping, smacking, whacking or kicking also would be outlawed.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, a Mountain View Democrat who is crafting the measure, said corporal punishment victimizes helpless children and contributes to a society "addicted to violence."

[...]

"To my mind, there's no amount of physical force that's appropriate on a child 3 years old or younger," Lieber said.

Let's state at the top that it is already against the law in California to beat your child. If one whips their child with any object ... say a belt ... one can find oneself arrested, prosecuted and taking mandatory parenting classes.

But swatting a 3 year old's hand when they are reaching out to a hot stove? A quick open-hand swat to the butt of a two-year old having an out-of-control tantrum? Physically restraining a toddler ... picking them up and moving them away ... from any situation the parent deems inappropriate?

Aren't those kinds of physical force best left to the decisions of parents?

Oh. Another thought. I find Sally Lieber's effort to have the government ban all physical force against children ironic while she has no problem with Partial Birth Abortion. Yep, no violence against children there.

UPDATE Digger points out that Ms. Leiber has no children of her own.

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Posted by Darleen at January 19, 2007 07:03 AM

Comments

You forgot the most important part as I discovered with my entry on this. She has no children of her own.

Posted by: Digger at January 19, 2007 11:33 AM

I am so moving.

Posted by: caltechgirl at January 19, 2007 01:17 PM

She has no children of her own.

CHICKENPARENT!!1!

Posted by: Josh at January 19, 2007 01:42 PM

I hope Dr. Spock is rotating on a spit in hell......

Posted by: gahrie at January 19, 2007 08:36 PM

Things sure change. When I was a boy back in the 50s, getting knocked about was just a part of the job of growing up....

Posted by: Carl W. Goss at January 19, 2007 11:20 PM

So Carl, how does:
But swatting a 3 year old's hand when they are reaching out to a hot stove? A quick open-hand swat to the butt of a two-year old having an out-of-control tantrum? Physically restraining a toddler ... picking them up and moving them away ... from any situation the parent deems inappropriate?

...have anything to do with your "knocked about" claim?

Posted by: Patrick Chester at January 20, 2007 11:10 AM

Not to mention the psychological message it will send to the tyrannical little brats . . .

Posted by: Sissy Willis at January 20, 2007 11:39 AM

Beats me Chester, I'm just pointing out what it was like in the 50s. Things are different now, I'm told.

Praise Jeezus I'm childless and never had to make such judgments....

:-)

Posted by: Carl W. Goss at January 21, 2007 01:08 AM

I hereby establish the Dr. Spock award, given to researchers and theorists who acquire a reputation for expertise that is entirely unjustified.

A.K.A. "the Benny Award."

Posted by: John at January 21, 2007 11:05 AM

This brings up a dilemma. Imagine two rooms at the same hospital on the same day. In the first room the doctor induces labor, then halts it almost all the way through so she/he can puncture the skull and suck the brains out. The doctor then pins a defunct baby cluster on a partial birth abortion medal from NARAL. In the second room, a doctor induces labor and the child pops out unhindered. Then the doctor, in a traditional attempt to start the baby breathing, slaps its backside and succeeds in provoking the crying and breathing responses. Since no violence on any small child can ever be condoned, this doctor is handcuffed and frog-marched into prison. Now, someone tell me where the exit is from this parallel universe, so I can return to the Earth I was born and raised in.

Posted by: Mark F. at January 21, 2007 12:13 PM

Yet another reason I'm happy I don't live in California!
Where on earth are they going to put all the parents? Build new prisons just for mommy spanking a wee one?

Who will take care of the kids then?

Day care centers? (where way too many children are abused already?)

Posted by: Beth at January 21, 2007 12:56 PM