Ouch! Spanking!
JANUARY 27, 2007 Listen to this Story
- Spanking
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Last week, California assemblywoman Sally Lieber stirred up a hornet's nest when she floated legislation making it illegal for parents, or anyone, to spank children under the age of three. It also stirred up something here at Weekend America. When it comes to spanking, it seems almost everyone's taken a side. Except for maybe our host Bill Radke. As a soon-to-be first-time parent Bill thought it would be a good time for him and his wife to figure out where exactly they fall in the debate.
Notes from host Bill Radke...
This story was a personal journey for me and I hope it gets you thinking, too. A California assemblywoman says she'll introduce a bill making it a misdemeanor to spank a child under four years old. I expected public reaction to be overwhelmingly negative, and it is. People find the idea unenforceable, intrusive and a waste of public resources. But I wasn't prepared for the level of scorn for the very notion of telling parents they can't hit their kids. After all, more than a dozen countries have done this. This is not an abstract question to me. My wife and I are expecting our first child in two weeks. So I talked to friends, a professional, and my wife Sara. We wonder, "How important is it to spank our children?"
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