I was a guest on a drive time radio talk show the other day to give my perspective on the Adrian Peterson tragedy and spanking. I shared that it is never okay to hit a kid for any reason, or anyone for that matter. http://wp.me/p3BKeg-pd 2 men subsequently called in ranting about how we are too soft on kids today and that we need to spank kids more, not less.
I appreciate that Peterson and these men are the products of their upbringing, and that they are just repeating what was done to them. On the other hand, there are 100’s of parenting books in libraries and bookstores and dozens of parenting classes that could enlighten them on more effective discipline strategies that don’t involve spanking. And then I got an idea for how to address the issue of corporal punishment with people like these who just don’t get it.
Maybe we should discipline Adrian Peterson by having him be spanked by someone who is proportionally bigger than him by the same amount he is to his 4-year-old son. That would be a man who is 12 feet tall and weighs about 1000 pounds wielding a switch 4 times bigger than his switch. I’d love to see if he learns much from being beaten by this monstrous authority figure. If Peterson ever gets to play football again, let’s have this giant coach present to beat him every time he hits the wrong hole or misses a block or runs the wrong route. I don’t think he’d become a better football player from this kind of treatment.
So every adult who believes that spanking is the answer to disciplining children should be liable to the same kind of punishment every time they make a mistake at home or work, and by someone 4 times bigger than they are. Perhaps that might finally end this archaic and hurtful means of parenting children.