Lurker in need of help with psychology assignment

[Wyn A'rienh]

Howdy folks.

I've been a lurker and occasional poster on this site for a couple of years now. I've always known this community to be kind and helpful, so I'm hoping you'll be kind and help me out here. If for some reason this is inappropriate, please accept my apologies.

I'm in a general psychology class at a community college. The final project for the class is a "scientific experiment". I am researching whether people who were spanked as a child are more likely to spank their own children. Since I know many of you have kids, I thought this would be a great spot to throw out my survey questions and hope for some answers. I am not trying to spark a debate here at all, I'm just looking for simple answers to two simple questions.

1. Were you spanked as a child?
2. Do you spank your own children?

If, for whatever reason, you would rather not answer the post here, please pm me or email me at righteousbabies@yahoo.com. I would really, really appreciate any response whatsoever.

Again, my apologies if this is innapropriate.

 

[Torm]

I was spanked as a child, but rarely - I was an eerily good kid. I'm sometimes weirded out by how good I was compared to normal kids - I think I may have been drugged er sumtin.

My kids get spanked whenever something they did wrong would or did result in physical pain or harm for themselves or someone else, but not otherwise. 1. Tripped your sister? - Spank. 2. Stand out in the middle of the street? - Spank. 3. Left your bedroom light on with no one in there AGAIN? - No video games tomorrow.

The way I figure it, punishment should give some indication of the real world thing that it takes the place of.

Edit because Wulf Ratbane is correct: I am 30, tomorrow. My wife will be in December.

 

[devilish]

Tried to email you and got:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

righteousbabies@yahoo.com.

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 10): 550 relaying denied for <righteousbabies@yahoo.com.>

 

[Maerdwyn]

1)Don't remember ever being spanked, but my mother says I was about twice when I was three and four.

2)I don't spank my kids.

 

[Wyn A'rienh]

Ack. Sorry about that email thing. Maybe try this one instead - righteousbabies@charter.net

Thanks for the replies so far!

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I was spanked occasionally as a child - only when I was really bad, though (and I was pretty bad, at times <devil grin>).

And, I don't have any children (yet).

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I was spanked as a child-- rarely; ie, just enough to know I didn't want to be spanked again. My mother did most of the real spanking and my father most of the "threatened" spanking. I don't remember ever actually being spanked by my father.

I have no children but "would" spank them.

And for what it's worth, because I think this will end up being relevant, I am 35 years old.

 

[Desdichado]

Is this is a simple yes or no, or do you want a bit more detail? I was only occasionally spanked as a child, and I also only occasionally spank my kids, and typically as a last resort when other disciplinary actions aren't getting through to them. Certainly I don't have a simple trouble=spank mentality.

Because of that, my older kids very rarely get spanked anymore (9 and 7 years old) my 3 and a half year old, who's the most stubborn cuss I've ever seen (even more than my wife! even more than me!!) gets it more frequently than either of them did even at his age. My one and a half year old is just now getting old enough where it makes any sense to give him a little slap on the hands or something like that, because he can put the cause and effect together in his head and learn to behave.

Oh, and Wulf probably has a good point. I'm 33 and my wife is almost 32. We were both raised by fathers that are essentially old-fashioned Southerners in their outlook if not always in their geography, and mothers who are more Rocky Mountain states in their background. I think the Southerner mentality had a lot to do with the philosophy of behavior and discipline with which we both grew up.

 

[der_kluge]

No.
No.

In some states, the state can take your kid away if you excessively spank them. I know. My wife is a social worker. I know these things.

 

[Lady_Acoma]

*knows nothing what so ever and would blame being spanked but she wasn't*

I was not spanked, but so long as you took time to stop and breath and the act REALLY meritted it I might spank my own children. But one should never spank angry.