First, Merry Christmas, valued readers.
That faint rustle you might detect are my parents and theirs shifting in their coffins after hearing the latest recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics about spanking children.
I've revisited my own disciplinary practices with now-grown children Brandon and Anna during their formative years where licks, administered to my bottom as a child, were applied to theirs when deserved.
I lost track long ago of the times I felt the sting of dad's belt, even through age 15 when I finally rebelled, telling him to keep lashing away at me if it made him feel better. He stopped swinging and became choked up.
The Colonel was never one to bypass the opportunity when I deserved punishment. The same held true for my younger siblings, as with most classmates and their parents.
It was common in 1962 that misbehaving in class earned a trip to the front where certain teachers would take pleasure in administering a thick wooden paddle to our backsides.
Yet somehow so many of us spanked baby boomers and our children made it through to become happy, productive, contributing adults with our own children to effectively discipline as caring parents.
Pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, who died in 1998, gained fame with his best-selling book Baby and Child Care. He also became widely known for his aversion to spanking as a form of punishment.
Spock initially avoided specifically recommending against spanking, claiming physical punishment in the home played a role in a society that accepts violence. He believed a revulsion toward spanking children would be a good place to start in creating a kinder and safer world.
Spock felt spanking sends the message that the larger stronger person has the power to get his or her way, which can naturally lead to larger kids bullying smaller ones. "I don't think physical punishment is necessary or particularly effective," he wrote later.
Today, many pediatricians are echoing Spock.
The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its policy the other day, according to an Associated Press medical writer, saying that corporal punishment can lead to aggression, brain changes, substance abuse and even suicidal behavior in adulthood.
Basing its advice updated from 1998 and supplementing its initial parental discipline policy on updated research, the physicians agreed spanking has fallen out of favor with parents, especially those with younger kids.
While some parents believe spanking can lead to short-term behavioral improvements, researchers say it is no more effective than non-physical punishment. They were talking about discipline such as timeouts, setting unwanted consequences, establishing firm limits, putting away favorite toys or cutting back on screen time.
"Although many children who were spanked become happy, healthy adults, current evidence suggests that spanking is unnecessary and may result in long-term harm," the academy contends.
The story said studies conducted over the past two decades supported evidence that spanking can make kids more aggressive. Still other research ties physical punishment in childhood with later changes in young adults, including reduced gray matter and elevated stress hormones.
Along with corporal punishment, the academy warned against subjecting children to harsh verbal abuse, including shaming them. They cited research linking those practices with depression and behavior problems in teens.
However, psychologist, nationally syndicated columnist and author of child-rearing books John Rosemond disagreed, and asked which researchers decided this, saying, "to which the answer is 'researchers who bring an ideological bias to the issue and whose research, therefore, does not qualify as science.'"
"Note how the [academy] disingenuously lumps yelling at and shaming children--which no rational person would endorse--with spanking, which more than 40 years of research done by individuals who have meticulously maintained their objectivity has found to be a valid and nonharmful disciplinary option when (a) not used as the primary disciplinary method, (b) administered moderately ... and (c) administered by parents who love their children unconditionally," Rosemond writes.
As for non-psychologist me, well, I'm nonetheless a parent and veteran observer of consequences to our actions. Undoubtedly there are many instances when parents, teachers and even grandparents have overapplied a switch, belt or open palm to a child's backside.
I also believe there are times when youths turned out to be terrible adults who might have benefited from what I, my siblings and so many of my friends received to our fannies that certainly captured our attention and respect. I believed, until that 15th year, I was punished for something I clearly had done wrong, not that my parents were bigger and imposing their strength and brutality on me.
More than inflicting lasting emotional effects from spanking, the sheer meanness behind verbal abuse and shaming, to me, become far more damaging and emotionally ingrained than the temporary discomfort from a deserved spanking.
This complex child punishment question clearly isn't a one-posterior-fits-all argument.
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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 12/25/2018