Spare the Rod... Spoil the Child....

Now most of you have a certain method of disciplining your child. Time out is a popular one of today. Grounding is some what effective. When I was a kid and I fucked up...I got the belt. The belt isn't popular these days because of the alleged psychological effect it has of children, (not proven) And the passive way we treat kids.

I believe, not matter how much we coddle and protect, our kids will someday figure out that they can almost get away with murder. If I backtalked my mother when my father was around...Holy shit!!! He turned into a goddamn madman!!! To keep from seeing him in the rage we put him in well.....we didn't back talk mom. Things were just better if you didn't piss off the 'ol man. Did I turn out like a browner version of Jeffrey Dahmer????? NO!!! It didn't scar us for life? Absolutlly not. Respect is earned I and still respect my father even though he's been dead for 14 years....and I sometimes still fear him.

The belt served it's purpose. The government does the same type of fear mongering with it's sentences to violent crimes. You kill with malice, damn sure the tax payer will put you to death. Rape... and it's twenty years of worrying whether or not your prison name will be "Alice B. Tightly".

Don't get me wrong here. There is a fine line between discipline and abuse. The use of a cigarette is not discipline. There are a lot twisted bastards out there who should not be minding a child. If they would have gotten the belt instead of a close fist beating well... who knows.

My father was a mighty man when I was young. But was actually smaller than me as I'm an adult. It doesn't mean if he were still alive that I would ever try and kick my father's ass. He still enstilled fear in me and the thought of a good spanking when he was dying. I call that respect.

Eric