That little warm bundle of joy you produced will become the biggest deal in your life and the feeling of responsibility is for a lifetime, even after they’ve left the nest. Discipline for this precious cargo should start as early as the crib. Oh yes, because it’s during this time that your little bundle will learn it’s first steps in manipulating your heart-strings. After only a few months your child will learn that a mere cry will have you sprinting to the crib to pick he or she up. By the time they reach the “ terrible twos” it will know your weaknesses and exactly how to manipulate both parents against each other for it’s own good. At age five you could very well become one of those mumbling, whimpering, fetal positioned parents appearing on ABC’s Nanny 911.

The trick is to stick with your selected discipline methods, never show fear or weakness. If you must cry after a session of discipline go into another room …if this weakness is displayed in front of your children they will know exactly what to do the next time and start circling like a great white with the smell of blood in it’s nostrils.

Spanking, I feel, is a necessary evil when dealing with human beings. It is a show of authority. In the pride of lions you don’t find the parents trying to be the children’s “friend” or equal. The lion and lioness are in charge and there is no mistaking it. Their cubs are taught how to survive in the wild and then pushed from the pride, this is true love. Everything should be done in moderation even discipline. Without an authority figure a child will feel unloved, frighten and later when the hormonal “terrible teens” emerge, they will have no respect for you, teachers, policeman, firemen or any other authority figures.

There are  really no laws in place at this time regarding spanking, only the knee jerk reaction of the educational system that have teachers filling student’s heads with worse indoctrination since Hiltler’s Youth era. This propaganda is dangerous and blind sides the child because our educators don’t relay the consequences of their actions.

Students go home threatening parents with arrest if their ever spanked. This is preposterous. In California 2000, a parent was arrested for spanking his preteen daughter’s bottom after she took the family car and proceeded to drive around town with her younger siblings in tow. After her punishment she called the police and turned him in, he was arrested, tried and convicted. During the sentencing the judge apologized because the charge was so ridiculous. Now the teen is in a foster home looking like a deer caught in headlights, because she was blind sided by the subsequent events that unfolded with what I call a “phantom legal rulings”.  The young lady’s action resulted in the complete collapse of a her family, because it was never stressed that the accusations should be used if warranted, not because you’re angry with a parent.

Our educators are morally responsible to report any student’s declaration of abuse or any visible signs of the activity. This is where their responsibility ends they are not doctors, child physiologist, or police. I’ve also noticed the increase of children on prescription drugs and it’s staggering and scary. I think there is a direct correlation between lack of corporal punishment and the sudden outbreak of ADD. These individuals are in need of some old fashion discipline not pill popping to cure their ills.

This so-called unwritten law has caused many parents to become complacent in their duties to their children. It’s easier to give the kid what he wants under the guise of love. Handing over material items short changes your children in the long run. They don’t learn respect for you or themselves, they become wanton, spoiled, lack respect for others, their space or things. They become lazy, sullen, ill-mannered brats with no respect for authority. It’s poetic justice for those teachers who created these little monsters and they become a thorn in their side daily.

When true love is shown, you love your seed enough to use the parent strength God gave you to instruct them in they way they should go. You become their hero, the person they trust and can look up to not some sleaze bag on a magazine cover, sports team or reality show.

To spank or not to spank is up to the parent, not any government or legislation.  No child should be struck in anger, slapped, verbally abused or kicked. Nor should they be hit with instruments or weapons, all things in moderation. This phantom ruling has not decreased child abuse one iota, but it has destroyed families, relationships and the moral fiber of our nation.

I am no longer imprisoned by the constraints of youth.  By constraints I mean worrying about what others feel about you, what you wear, say, feel or your material assets. With age comes life lessons that help you prioritize what’s important in life. I feel less restrained in seeking out pursuits that interest me and taking more risks in attaining them.

In my youth I would never attempt to write, even though I longed to I did not possess the strength to take a leap of faith in myself and my abilities. As a woman I finally enjoy the freedom I always claimed I had.  Now barriers that would have stymied me in my youth are seen as interesting challenges to strengthen my resolve to succeed in whatever I put my mind to. I enjoy my time to my self and am no longer the needy little girl who must rely on another person in my space to consider myself whole.

 But lets give credit where credit is due;  the advent of our new found technology has released the restraints that most faced in expressing the desire to investigate new avenues. The only waste I see that’s wasted on the young is time. Don’t waste time thinking about your dreams go forward full blast.  That is my only regret that I didn’t start living my dreams sooner.