According to the Associated Press:
California parents could face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a state lawmaker has promised to introduce next week.
Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society.
"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?"
Lieber said her proposal would make spanking, hitting and slapping a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. Adults could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Aides to the assemblywoman said they are still working on a definition for spanking.
The imagery the assemblywoman uses is interesting. I would guess that "beating a child" would be illegal under California law as it is. And "whipping" a toddler wouldn't be effective.
How far does this law go? Smacking a diapered butt? How many swats constitutes a spanking? Five? Three? One? And who constitutes a "young child"? An infant? Toddler? Pre-schooler? Kindergartener?
The governor said he and his wife, Maria Shriver, did not spank their four children and used alternative methods for discipline. For example, Schwarzenegger said they found it more effective to threaten to take away their children's play time if they didn't do school work.
I would say that by the time a child has school work, that child is probably big enough to reason with, hence the waning need for spanking. My understanding is that spanking is typically reserved for situations where the child doesn't have the capacity to understand his/her actions, and so needs a deterrent.
Compare banning spanking with this story stating that one in three parents think their discipline methods is ineffective. (H/T to Rush Limbaugh.
About one in three parents in the United States and Canada do not think their methods of disciplining their children work well, according to a U.S. study.
Dr. Shari Barkin, chief of general pediatrics at Tennessee's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt found 31 percent of about 5,000 parents surveyed said they "never" or "sometimes" perceived their methods to be effective.
What were those methods?
It found 41.5 percent of parents removed privileges, while 13 percent reported yelling at their children, and 8.5 percent reported the use of spanking "often or always."
"We strongly suspect that both yelling and spanking might be underreported," said Barkin, whose study is published in the January issue of the journal Clinical Pediatrics.
She said by the time children reach the 6-to-11 year old age range, parents are about 25 percent less likely to report using time-outs and spanking as they were with younger children.
When children reached school age, parents report a more frequent use of taking away privileges and yelling.
I have no doubt the number of yellers and spankers is underreported. Even so, it sounds like the privilege-banners aren't winning the discipline war, either.
Basically, discipline is an art. By the time children get to school, a parent should have a pretty good idea what will make a child behave as they are supposed to. I will be the first to admit that sometimes this is harder to figure out with one child than another. My oldest needed only the threat of a spanking to tow the line. It took a long time, however, to find something my son cared enough about to behave. No amount of spanking, time-outs, taking away privleges, etc. worked for him, until he fell in love with computer games. Now a day or two without the computer will cause the required behavior change.
As for the youngest, well, you know that youngest children are perfect, right? ;)
UPDATE: Patterico has this on his site and includes the information that the child must be four years old or younger.
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