Boston Herald – Tuesday, November 27, 2007, via Overlawyered.com:
Parents who spank their kids – even in their own homes – would be slapped by the long arm of the law under an Arlington nurse’s proposal to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to outlaw corporal punishment.
Kathleen Wolf’s proposed legislation will be debated at a State House hearing tomorrow morning.
If signed into law, parents would be prohibited from forcefully laying a hand on any child under age 18 unless it was to wrest them from danger, lest they be charged with abuse or neglect.
Frankly, I don’t see why they even let simple citizens raise children in the first place. I mean, the fact is that most parents are shit, are totally unqualified for the job, and what they really should do is form a bureaucracy of psychologists and teachers that can raise the children for us.
I mean, who better to raise our children our children than government workers and the university educated?
At the very least, they could at least put everyone on mandatory birth control and only allow people to breed if they pass a series of tests and get a license.
#1 – I see what you did there
What did I do?
Yet another pathetic bill from the People’s Republic of Mass.
No wonder they’re all moving to NH. At first I thought it was the taxes but I can see there’s more to it than that.
It’s the old “you only teach them to be violent” chestnut, I guess. How about this: “You teach them that there are times when violence is appropriate, and how to use measured force that fits the situation.” Unless, of course, you are a child abuser, but we already have laws against that.
Ah, yes, this should bring out one or two capable of a measured, mature response (not bad, #5).
And half a dozen tantrums from those mortified by the prospect of actual consequences to lashing out violently on a whim.
Yep. Just load them up with drugs. Spanking doesn’t do anything anyway but put them in line. We all obviously turned out with problems due to our parents spanking us.
Obviously there is not enough parents out there that spank. Start with the legislature of Mass.!
#5 said it.
and to expand on what #7 said – if spanking sends the message that violence is OK, what message does doping them up send?
and finally, count on this law, if it is passed, to be highly selectively enforced, as is usual for when the State overreaches.
I could have used a law like this when I was a kid. Not that I was ever spanked all that much.
One night my Dad and I were arguing about something really important to a five year old and I threw a punch that caught him just under the belt buckle and totally unaware. He went down. I thought I had killed him. He started to get up. I was relieved. He did not look happy. I ran like hell.
I don’t know who designed that little crackerbox of a house, but he saved my butt. I was able stay ahead of Dad long enough for him to start laughing.
Perry
Spanking and light bondage is HIGHLY encouraged at my place.
Violence starts where the intelligence ends.
Bravo Massachusetts!
another childless woman trying to dictate to parents how to raise kids. Yeesh. Great.
As any parent can tell you – by the time you have the experience to know what you are doing as a parent, you are no longer young enough to be fertile. Everyone is an amateur initially
I dont know,
I do believe, that hitting a Kid is NOT the best way to MAKE THEM THINK, or lead them to BETTER judgment.
I tend to believe that…
1. The first time, you ask them WHAT THEY WERE THINKING, and WHY they did it. Try to find a justifation for THEIR reasoning.
Discipline In such a way, to MAKE them THINK harder, or remove things they enjoy.
2. the second time, do about the same, to find out the reasons…
Discipline Harder if needed..Ask the Janitor to LET him STRIP, CLEAN and Polish the Gym floor..
3. third time, If he is still alive, as for a REASON, a VERY GOOD REASON…
BEAT the living HELL out of him(no evil left) and make him WISH he had died of multiple internal injuries rather then SCARE you, of his NEAR fatal stupidity..
Sad to say, the evidence continues to accumulate that Massachussetts, that once-great bastion of traditional “live and let live” true liberalism, is rapidly becoming a PC police state run by hardcore Marxist-inspired radical leftist ideologues, who “know” – naturally, being ideologues – with every bit as much certainty as their right-wing extremist counterparts that they are unquestionably correct and therefore have the right to mandate how you and I will conduct our lives.
#11. sending someone to jail is a very violent act. much moreso than a spanking.
Bravo Massachusetts.
I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’m an inmate of the Commiewealth of Taxachusetts. I got spanked when I was a kid, as did most of the people I knew as I grew up. Not one of us has ever had any altercations with the law. We grew up to respect authority.
Now the state wants to step in and tell parents what they can and cannot do in the process of raising their children? (This measure was introduced and defeated in California already a while back) Okay, fine. Take a look around and you can easily see all the spoiled children of baby boomers that never got a spanking: you’ll see drug addicts, criminals, smartasses, pregnant pre-teen girls, dropouts… in other words, brats that have no respect for the law or authority.
Yeah, let’s teach children that parents are powerless to discipline them and let them get away with murder. Pretty soon they’ll outlaw yelling, reprimanding them, or speaking negatively toward them at any time because it might undermine their self-esteem.
Remember: it’s all for the children. To hell with grownups and what they think is best.
In ten years Massachussets will be a slang for wimp.
I was never spanked as a kid–but I got paddled in high school.
I threw a spitwad at my friend and was told to stop. Did it again. My friend and I were sent to the principals office.
The principal said “Study hall for a week, or 3 swats, take your choice.” I thought “great, study hall is just fine.” My friend answered and said he would take the swats, so what choice did I have? Brought tears to my eyes.
From this I learned: Don’t be an idiot and do what your friends do, and don’t throw spitwads when the teacher is looking.
Don’t think I have ever told my parents. Don’t know if the school did. Valuable education that.
@16 “sending someone to jail is a very violent act. much moreso than a spanking.”
So, don’t hit your kid in the first place. But I guess some people are just too lazy to actually raise their kids… violence is the solution to all problems that takes more than a minute to talk about.