Disciplining your kids: To spank or not to spank? - AmericaNowNews.com

To spank or not to spank?

If you're a parent, chances are you've stood at this crossroads before when trying to discipline your child: To spank or not to spank?

Some people say it's constructive, but others think it's a form of abuse. So where do you draw the line between healthy and harmful?

A recent Canadian study claims that spanking your child could cause developmental delays.

We talked to behavioral and developmental pediatrician Dr. Robert Needlman to get his thoughts. He says, "In terms of spanking, that is not abuse - the data are mixed and there are many, many perfectly healthy smart people who remember having been spanked by their parents."

That said, Dr. Needlman says spanking is absolutely not necessary. He says it teaches your kid that they can get their way through physical force, and it can evolve to something much worse.

"But if the parent spanks the child and the behavior doesn't get better, and the parent spanks again and the behavior doesn't get better, and the parent strikes harder and the behavior doesn't get better - pretty soon you're in a position where the parent is actually abusing the child," says Dr. Needlman.

Study or no study, and the fact that many adults were spanked as kids while not being abused, there just is, according to Dr. Needlman, no reason to go down that road.

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