29th October 2007

We had Ryan, Chas and Matt over on Saturday night and we got into a discussion about spanking. Well it proved to be a lively and very interesting one. Your Mum and I had not discussed this as yet which is understandable; it’s a bit early on for that. However Ryan was speaking very passionately against the action. I started to write what he said then thought hang on, I work for a telecommunications company, have you not heard of a phone? So I called him and heres what he thinks - He believes this has played a contributing part in humanities violent tendencies.

He said there is a big difference between discipline and violence and as a parent you need to think about that. You can’t change the world but you can choose not to be a party to forms of violence. His reasoning is that you can’t bend someone to their will by hitting them. In fact it is usually the case that parents hit kids for themselves out of frustration. He sees hurting a child as the ultimate betrayal. He believes that the lesson learnt is "If you don’t do what I say then im going to make you". This is the belief that kids then bring into their adult life and the world out there isn’t always going to agree with you. Many people will say that kids are worse than they were in the past. As Ryan says, the old ways that people wish were back were even worse, ruled by fear behind closed doors. Men would beat their wives and their children like it was a God given right. He said about his girl: "If she can’t rely on me not to cause her pain then who can she?" Well my philosophy on this is basically no different. I truly hope that I was able to maintain that standard with you and not become weak minded and resort to this nonsense. My response is that I do not allow hitting you to be a choice, therefore im just going to have to be smarter and think of better ways of managing you when you are screaming and belligerent!