In Reply to: Re: No posted by Mr. Don on October 18, 2006 at 20:45:07:
I've had this discussion with my adult son, who is now a father of a little girl.
He has what I would consider a similar view to the once you've expressed to the question of physical discipline. He's a guy, he liked to play rough sports growing up, and he's ambitious as a young man to make his mark in the world. He thinks whatever spankings he got, he probably had them coming, and that it's part of growing up and learning to respect boundaries.
Kids can do incredibly dangerous things growing up if they're prone to be adventuresome, strong & physically active, and somewhat oblivious to verbal ques like the word "no." I call it the curse of testosterone.
Little girls can also be these things--very headstrong and physically daring. I don't know if it's testosterone or just the chemistry of being an ornery kid. However, little girls (in general) are easier to intimidate and contrain with verbal ques than are little boys. There's actually a scientific reason for this. Males apparently cannot understand women's voices as well as both women & men can understand male voices. It's the pitch and tone difference.
Oh well, I'm rambling. I got beat up by my father quite a bit as a child and adolescent, and it wasn't fun. Like Davida said in her BBC interview: It kinda messes with your head.