How do you tell someone who says: “Well, i was hit as a child and i’m okay,” that they’re the minority?

If you can`t substantiate your statistics by quoting their source, you should not be making rash statements.

I was hit as a child, hell I was beaten as a child and I am not only alright, I know that I am NOT in the minority. I worry about the kids who were verbally abused more than those of us who were hit. They don’t know how to cope any other way than psychological warfare and that freaks me right out. Someone comes at me like they are going to attack me, they are going down!

How do you know that you aren’t in the minority? I honestly do not know a single person who was never spanked when they were a child. I do know a few messed up people (like everyone does), but I mostly know people who are successful.

I think you should probably do some research to back up your statements with the person. If the data supports your claims, then just share the data with the person.

Make sure you distinguish between spanking and abuse. I was spanked but never abused.

By hit, do you mean spanked. How do you know that they are in the minority. Let’s just say for argument sake that you are correct, I, as a parent have to decide what is best for my child. If I feel that spanking is the correct form of discipline, then it is up to me. I do feel that sometimes spanking is used to much and children become immune to it. I use it when my son does something dangerous like touch the hot stove or play with matches. I want to use something to let him know how serious his actions were. I just can’t see saying “Johnny sit in that chair for five minutes because you almost burned the house down.”

Here’s what I think, but I could be wrong. I think we tolerate stupidity too often, and this is a classic example. People think hitting kids is a good punishment and they’re idiots. So I would say the best response is to not tolerate it. Tell them very frankly that they’re wrong and too uneducated to understand why but that they should shut up. The vast majority of people don’t understand or think about punishment, and don’t have goals. Ask them why they would hit their kid. It doesn’t stop the behavior, it doesn’t help the kid. It’s just retributive and that’s a bad relationship to have with your child.

< never was spanked, and never spanked. To use power and pain to get your way, teaches something I don't want my children to learn. If they say, "I'm okay" after being hit as a child, what they should say is, "I was hit, but I managed to be okay afterwards". I can drop the dishes and say, "It's okay, they're not broken", but I shouldn't make dropping the dishes a regular thing. Neither should I teach my children to do the same. If you spank or hit a child and that child later hits or spanks a sibling, think about it. Have they learned how to demonstrate frustration? What if they said, "But he wouldn't listen to me!" Would it sound familiar? Whether that person was in the minority or in the majority isn't important. What is important is how that person perceived being hit. Sometimes we hand down the wrong things to our children.

effectiveness aside, I cannot find research or polls that support this. In my searches, a majority of Americans still respond that corporal punishment is still being used in the home.

1994 Gallup poll – 67 % (quick search, havent found more recent… show if you have…)

Do you really believe that?? i would have thought the opposite ☺:)

has anyone ever said that to you? just curious.