Once when I was about four, we were sitting at the bookstudy. It was about to end, the conductor asked if anyone else had any comments to make before the meeting was dismissed with prayer.
I raised my little dimpled hand, innocently thinking that he was asking for comments on anything. He actually called on me, and I said (something to the effect of)
"I just want to say that parents should never hit and spank their children, 'cause it really hurts them."
From the way my mother tells this story (yes, she actually laughs about it!) the flustered conductor simply said "Thank you, that is something important for parents to keep in mind."
It was never mentioned at home. But see, my mother never hit me at meetings. At home it was the big plastic Avon hairbrushes, and woooden cooking spoons. My dad just used his hand upside my head.
It's insane, how they rationalize it. My mother says that some parents who twisted hair and ears of their kids at the meetings went too far. But she had no problem, just last week, with lecturing me because I refuse to use physical punishment of any kind on my child. We've done just fine with time outs and other restrictions. I could never inflict physical pain on my own child. And everyone in my family, and my ex's family knows that if anyone ever did 'spank' her, they'd be facing rapid charges of child battery.
And I was one of the lucky ones, I know. I got off easy.
I just cannot, for the life of me, imagine all the adults that heard my remark at the meeting and never asked me, or my parents about it. No one seemed to notice. Or care. If I heard a four year old say something like that, you can bet I wouldn't let it go in one ear and out the other.
Too many bad memories. Takes a lot to get me crying these days. This thread did it.
essie