Massachusetts to Debate Spanking Ban
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
There is a new bill in Massachusetts that the legislature will start debating tomorrow, a bill that would make it a crime to spank your children.
Parents who spank their kids – even in their own homes – would be slapped by the long arm of the law under an Arlington nurse’s proposal to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to outlaw corporal punishment.
If signed into law, parents would be prohibited from forcefully laying a hand on any child under age 18 unless it was to wrest them from danger, lest they be charged with abuse or neglect.
This is just the latest example of the government diminishing the role of the parent and trying to infiltrate every last aspect of a parent’s rights. Who does the government think they are that they can tell somebody HOW to raise their children? We are talking about a slap on the ass or two here, that never trully hurt a child and it teaches them pretty quickly right from wrong. It doesn’t mentally destroy them for life. We are not talking about child abuse here, we are not talking about beating a child. Just a slap on the ass. By the way, if it happens in the home, how does the government regulate that? Is it just the parent’s word against the child’s?
The Democrat who is introducing this bill refuses to say whether he supports slapping or not. He released a statement through his spokesman.
“He does recognize and understand the concern many would have on legislating parental rights,” said Sean Fitzgerald, Kaufman’s chief of staff, “but the problem is the boundary is often overstepped. The right to hit should never be the right to hurt.”
He understands he may be trampling on parent’s rights, he just doesn’t give a damn. Some residents in the state are not too happy with this legislation.
I believe discipline starts at home. Are they going to start legislating that you can’t raise your voice to your kids? That you can’t tell them when to go to bed? We’ll be communists then.”
BINGO. That is what is at stake here, letting the government regulate more and more aspects of a person’s life, from what they can eat, where they can smoke, and now, how they can raise their children.
Read the Boston Herald article here.
America's Watchtower 
I figure that if Teddy Kennedy had of had his butt kicked when he was a kid there would be a girl alive right now…one might say that spanking saves lives!
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This is amazing and sad at the same time.
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It is sad. Interestingly the Minnesota court of appeals recently said that spanking wasn’t child abuse. I think that there is a big difference between spanking and walloping your child. Leaving deep bruises on your kids but is excessive. But a little bit of corporal punishment to show your kids that you mean business is an effective tool. Those of us who were spanked as kids know that. There was no greater fear than “just wait until your father gets home.”
It wasn’t child abuse then, it isn’t child abuse now!
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That’s the issue here, a slap on the butt is one thing, beating a child on the butt until he can’t sit down is another. Massachusetts evidentally doesn’t believe a parent knows the difference, so they must tell them.
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RE: “The right to hit should never be the right to hurt.”
What an idiot. First of all, parents can hurt their children in a number of ways without laying a hand on them, and the damage that is done is much more severe than spanking. Secondly, I can’t believe that the People’s Republic of Mass in general, and Child and Family Services in particular, doesn’t have anything better to do than enforce this kind of crap.
RE: “Are they going to start legislating that you can’t raise your voice to your kids? That you can’t tell them when to go to bed? We’ll be communists then.”
Too late. You’re pretty much communists now.
And NH is racing to catch up.
mpinkeyes is 100% correct: The other critical issue is that pinheads running MA government seem to think that they need to step in to tell everyone else the difference between discipline and child abuse and to set limits for them because the average person won’t be able to figure it out for themselves.
Do they really believe that the public is that stupid?
Of course, given the fact that the people in MA continue to vote for the same Democrats year-after-year, the answer is: “Yes. They probably ARE that stupid.”
It takes a village to raise a child.
They are the village; you are the child.
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“The right to hit should never be the right to hurt”
What a crock. The whole idea of spanking is to hurt a little. It should be, ” the right to discipline shoud never mean the right to injure or damage”. This should include psychological abuse as well.
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spare the rod, spoil the child
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