Spankings

Spankings are very borderline now, aren't they? Some parents consider them abuse, and some think they are not only acceptable, but necessary.

We fall somewhere in the middle, I suppose.
I think spanking with an object - be it a belt or a wooden spoon - in entirely inappropriate and abusive.
I think spanking too often is counter-productive.
I think spanking can be useful, though.
I mean, honestly, it gets a point across like nothing else can.
I try to reason with my kids for the most part - but reasoning with children is difficult...because they're children.

Anyway, we spank occasionally. Mostly, though, we just threaten to spank. I'm sure I tell my kids I'm going to spank them at least once a day. They are actually spanked, though...maybe once every 2-3 weeks?

Asher has started spanking himself - as Tessa did about his age. I'll say "you stop that, or I'll spank you!" and he says (with a big grin) "I'll spank!" and slaps his little bum all by himself. He thinks he's quite clever - it's hard not to laugh at.

A couple of weeks ago Tessa had a poem to memorize for her class at school. On the way home one day I said to her "we need to make sure you're poem is memorized tonight - it's due tomorrow"
She told me she had it memorized. I said I knew she had the first stanza done, but I thought she needed a little work on the second part. She argued that she knew it, and proceeded to recite it for me. When she got to the second part, she said a line that I didn't think was correct. So I told her I didn't that that was it. She argued that it was. I told her I was 99% sure it wasn't. She started pulling some major attitude then, telling me she was 99% sure it WAS and that she knew - I didn't.
So I told her fine, we'll look when we get home. "and how should I punish you for giving me all this attitude when we find out you're wrong?"
She suggested a spanking. Then I said "Okay - and if I'm wrong, then what?"
She said then SHE got to spank ME. I agreed.

We'd forgotten about it by the time we got home. A few hours later, the kids were eating dinner at the table when I opened a cabinet and found the poem. I read it over quickly and realized that she was right. So I took it over to the table and set it down next to her, not saying anything. She read it over, turned to me and said "mommy..."
You've never seen a kid so excited to swat her mom on the butt.
She has since decided that any time I'm wrong she gets to spank me. Luckily I'm not wrong often ;)