Child punishment

Child punishment has elicited mixed reactions among parents and other institutions responsible for the rights of children. Most parents beat up their children as a correctional mechanism for the offenses that they commit. It is therefore a way of inflicting pain to trigger behaviour change. However, beating up children is subjected to debate, whether it is useful or rather, harms and triggers negative behaviour in children. Family background, culture and the perceptions of the punishment have been cited, as some of the contributors among parents beating of their children. Many governments have banned corporal punishments in schools and homes but still many parents prefer administering physical punishment to children to deal with certain misbehaviors among their children. Beating of children is a form of corporal punishment, should not be promoted or encouraged as a form of administering punishment to children, and should be avoided at all costs due to its enormous repercussions.

Lack of training to deal with the misbehaving children is one reason why parents should abandon or avoid hitting their children. Many parents lack skills and resources to deal with various situations that their children find themselves in. Most of them do not understand the psychology of children and therefore they punish their children by beating them without understanding the effects those punishments could have to the mental or cognitive capacity of the children. Understanding the psychology of children is important when administering any kind of punishment; skills that many parents lack (Christine and Joan 169). They do not know the right way of correcting their children and leading them to the right path. The beating may orient the child to be rebellious and resistant to change in the future. Therefore, parent should not use beating but rather seek appropriate advice from specialists on how to deal with misbehaving children.

Child beating is one of the many forms of child abuse, and therefore should not be allowed among parents. Beating children is inflicting pain to the children and this triggers their emotions. This furthermore, affects their thinking and attitude towards their parents and may affect them psychological in the coming years. Furthermore, some parents are ruthless and do not know the limit which they need to administer punishment hence causing physical harm to the children. Such cases violate the rights of children and are against best and required children nurturing practices. This also results to higher costs that are incurred in meeting the medical expenses because of the beatings. Other method like time-outs and taking away privileges should be used instead of beating. The effects the beating does to a child may be long lasting and even affect their mental capability.

Beating children instills violence traits in children and therefore they grow up and end up using the same. Most parents who use beating and violence on their children either are stressed up or are full of anger and therefore use beating as a method to ventilate. This method has negative effects to the children since they are socialized and therefore grow up with the notion of violence as the only way of managing stress and frustration. This, therefore, affects the entire lives of children, as they will also use the same methods to punish their children. Social expectations by parents to incorporate spanking and beating among children are also one of the contributions of the parent’s use of beating. Society and cultures of different people acknowledge beating as affable method of instilling discipline among the children, as without it children may be defiant and rude to the authority. Punishment is the only way that good behaviors could be instilled in children, the culture of spare the rod and spoil the child as used in the bible has entrenched into people’s minds as the best method of ensuring good upbringing of children.

The use of corporal punishment is accepted in USA. According to Tracy, use of corporal punishment among children like beating is a way of curtailing a child’s bad behaviors and therefore is recommended (1523). Most parents in the USA, almost 90% admitted to have hit their children in the course of their nurturing/upbringing. Sometimes inflicting pain to children may assist in instilling good morals in them as it helps them to avoid repeating offenses they commit. The pain inflicted will impede further reoccurrence of the same behavior hence assist in shaping of good behaviors among children. Those supporting the beating of children build on the premise of curtailing the children from committing same mistakes as they create fear that such mischievous will attract punishment ( Michele 103).These fears, therefore, ensures that children grow up with fear and knowing that they should not get involved in certain behaviors as they attract punishment.

Beating of children by parents still remains a paradox as some parents claim that that is the only way to instill, good morals and correct the misbehaviors among children. They argue that sparing the rod is definitely spoiling the child. Furthermore, there social orientation and culture have groomed them to use corporal punishment as a method of curtailing bad behaviors. On the other hand, beating of children has negative impacts among children especially if not done in a good way, children psychology may be affected triggering negative attitudes toward life, causing resistance and heightening the negative behaviors among them. Furthermore, it could cause physical harm to children, impairing them physical hence leading to high costs of treatment. Therefore, as the debate whether beating of children is right or wrong, rages on, it is important to note that whichever decision chosen should ensure that children adapt to good behaviors and grow up upholding to good morals.

Works Cited

Christine, Ateah, & Joan, Durrant. “Maternal use of physical punishment in response to child misbehavior: implications for child abuse prevention,” Child Abuse & Neglect, 29.2 (2005):169-185. Print.
Michele, Knox. “On Hitting Children: A Review of Corporal Punishment in the United States,” Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 24.2 (2010): 103-107.Print.
Tracy, Dietz. “Disciplining children: characteristics associated with the use of corporal punishment,” Child Abuse & Neglect, 24.12 (2000): 1529-1542. Print.