We conducted an informal poll on the Action News Facebook page to find out what you think. It is an informal survey (we have more than 26,000 friends, or "likes" as they are called now), of which 107 people (so far) responded. Ninety-one of them gave us a yes or no answer.
Here are the results:
Parents who spank or have spanked their children: 61
Parents who do not, and will not, spank their children: 30
The parents who employ physical discipline on their children outnumber those who don't by a 2-1 margin (again, in our informal Facebook survey).
A recent poll by researchers at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan found some very different numbers. They interviewed 1500 parents, and released the results in April of 2010. They found that only one in five parents would spank their children in certain scenarios.
Link to study: http://myenrpr.com/viewclip.aspx?gid=d6adcfaa-181d-4d16-b245-5fe9f8b363cd
Poll director Dr. Matthew Davis said: "It was a surprise to find how few parents listed spanking and paddling." More parents in the South and West listed spanking in their discipline efforts (20 and 31 percent), and the children most likely to be spanked were between two and five years old.
One note: the poll asked people what they thought they would do when it came to spanking, not if they have spanked their children in the past.
Here are some of your responses from our Action News Facebook Survey:
Lori Reilly Erdley: "Violence produces violence. Never spanked my kids once, and I now have two fine adults!"
Madalyn Phillips Sawicky: "Yes, my children were spanked, I was spanked, I have three great children that were spanked, my mom and dad raised six great children who were also spanked. See how society has changed when spanked was "forbidden?" Where is the respect these days? "Time outs" just don't cut it."
Hrh Mortimer Spreng: "With all the local laws regulating such things, I would never answer this question on a public forum."
Mary Steaker Stephens: "Time outs DO WORK! If it is followed up with a talk and a hug."
David J. DiPinto: "My child never gets a spanking, however a swat upside the back of the head works pretty well. I rarely do it, but sometimes it's needed to reestablish who's the boss."
Karen Shaw: "Violence begets violence."
Rhonda Lynn Jones: "Times outs are bogus, but beating your kid is not the answer either. Too many parents are not around, both are working and leaving the discipline up to the care provider and some of them are just not taking care of our kids right."
Gretchen Van: "Spanking is not the same as abuse. That's why kids are so horrible today. Disrespectful, no respect for authority. Please, we got smacked as kids, respected our parents, was not abuse. Give me a break…that's exactly what's wrong with kids today."
Thanks to all of you who participated in our (informal) poll. Keep the conversation going right here on our 6abc.com Parenting Blog. And we'll get another conversation about parenting going again soon.
Read more Parenting Perspective blogs by visiting the Parenting Channel on 6abc.com.
