Reply #3: Sometimes you need to get a child's attention immediately [View All]

[slackmaster]

When a child is doing something that poses a risk of serious injury or death, and isn't taking seriously your efforts to stop the behavior with words, it is occasionally appropriate to swat the child. I did it once when my then 5-year-old stepson kept climbing up on the safety rail at a view overlook in Hawaii. On the other side of the rail was a 2,000-foot sheer drop.

Am I reading too much into this, or are we really a nation of bullies that gets off on hitting kids?

State of mind is everything in this issue. If you are hitting a child to "get off" or out of anger, it's probably the wrong thing to do.