(no subject)

[danuv]

There is a news story about a church here in Atlanta who's members whip or spank their children and may have them taken away. I've heard both 'whip' and 'spank' used by the reporter but to me there seems to be a huge difference between the two. I have a very strong knee jerk reaction to these sorts of stories because of my great fear that the government is becoming way too involved in what should be personal family choices. In my mind the parents should make the decision to spank or not. Whipping on the other hand crosses the line. No child should be left bruised or covered in welts. Tomas and I don't plan on spanking but we do on occasion spank Rhiannon's hand. As a child I was 'belted' and I think that was too much. However, I knew kids that had it much worse. *sigh* Such a difficult issue. I think that only so much planning out of these matters can be done before you have kids because living the reality of being a parent is so much different than any hypothetical situation you can come up with. Sometimes I feel like I am just throwing darts at a board and hoping that I make the right choice. I figure they will become teenagers and find things to hate me for no matter what I do and I can only do the best I can so no reason to stress myself out about it too much. :) Ah parenthood.