By Dr. CNN I think it's safe to assume that most parents who spank their kids love them very much. I've never met one who said otherwise. However, that does not mean that spanking is an act of love or that there is such a thing as a "right way" to do it. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. Drew: Spanking does 'nothing good'. More Videos Drew: Spanking does 'nothing good'

A medical academy wrongly conflates discipline with abuse.

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The short answer is no. When your child misbehaves or acts in defiant, inappropriate, or even dangerous ways, you want to show him his behavior is unacceptable and must change. Spanking may seem like a direct and effective way to do that, but it delivers other messages you don't want to send:. That's a natural question. After all, most of us were spanked as children -- 82 percent, according to the latest poll -- and we didn't turn out so bad, did we? We may feel that our parents were good parents, that they spanked us because they loved us, so why shouldn't we practice the same "tough love" on our kids? The answer is that we know far more about the negative effects of spanking than we used to. Our parents may have loved us; they may have been been wonderful parents. But if they knew what we know now, they might not have spanked us. Among other things, research shows that children who are physically punished by their parents are more likely to engage in violent, aggressive behavior -- both as children and as adults.
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The short answer is no. When children misbehave or act in defiant, inappropriate, or even dangerous ways, parents want to show that this behavior is unacceptable and needs to change. Parents may erroneously think spanking seems like a direct and effective way to do that, but it delivers other messages that we don't want to send:. That's a natural question. After all, most of us were spanked as children -- 82 percent, according to one poll -- and we didn't turn out so bad, did we? We may feel that our parents were good parents, that they spanked us because they loved us, so why shouldn't we practice the same "tough love" on our children? But today we know far more about the negative effects of spanking than we used to. Our parents may loved us more than life itself; they may have been wonderful parents. But if they knew then what we know now, they might not have spanked us.
Taking the New York City subway everyday, I have witnessed a lot of eyebrow raising behavior over the years. Watching someone relieve himself on the platform — typical. A woman catching the 3 train without pants on — I don't even bat and eye. As strange as those incidents may seem, they didn't faze me nearly as much as seeing a mom spank her little boy during a ride uptown. He started pushing her buttons before they even boarded. When she finally reached a boiling point, she gave him about five whacks across his backside before dragging him into the seat next to her. She then looked up at me hoping for an empathetic smile or nod.