Emotional damage... gosh....

Ok, this is something that I totally cannot agree with and I seldom disagree with such intensity. Often, I think that you can find merit in something if you try to understand from the other person's point of view. But basically this is a topic that irks me. Haha... So yup, I have to be honest here, I am not totally objective for this topic, but I am pretty sure that my point of view is not totally wrong.

Was watching 20/20 and there was this story about how a mother was using a high-pressure jet hose on her kid. I am not interested in discussing if the mum was right or wrong, but here's something that an expert said:

But according to Yale professor Dr. Alan Kazdin, president of the American Psychological Association, physical punishment of any kind can be emotionally damaging. What's more, it doesn't work. "It suppresses behavior just for that moment and it won't have any enduring effects that are positive," said Kazdin. "But it can have a lot of enduring effects that are negative."

Seriously! Where are the good old days where you will be smacked by ur parents if u dared to tell them that ur teacher smacked you. The default understanding then was that if you were smacked by your teacher then you must have done something wrong. Come on. Life aint fair. Even if you were not in the wrong, cry and get over it. Kena smacked wouldn't die. And if your ego can't take it, too bad. Seriously, are we trying to bring up a bunch of pussies or something.

Haha... ok. I know I have swung all the way to the other side of the pendulum. Pardon my insensitivity, if any was shown. A general rule for me is that once I start to get fairly extreme on a topic, you shouldn't take me too seriously liao... :p Anyway the thing is that I cannot agree with a statement which says that physical punishment of ANY kind doesn't have ANY positive enduring effects but can have a LOT of negative enduring effects. Seriously, I don't agree with Dr. Kazdin's statement and it's not because I haven't gotten my Ph.D. yet. It's doesn't take a genius to imagine the amount of evidence required for such a definitive statement.

Ok, to be fair I did do a quick glance at Dr. Kazdin's website and there are quite a few things that I do agree with him lah... Like we should set clear limits upfront, dun be overly protective, dun nag etc... You can check it out for yourself http://www.alankazdin.com/. Haha... it's ok as a reference but you can be sure that I am not buying every word this fella is saying...

Btw, for more on the story, you can check out the 20/20 website http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5311586&page=1

Oh lastly. Yup I am not a parent. Which then by definition means I dun have kids (just in case this was not immediately apparent from my previous statement). But I was a kid once, I have tons of friends who used to be kids, taught in a poly and was once required to get a bunch of young men to carry heavy stuff (e.g. fullpack, rifles etc...) and walk around the jungles in circles as part of my duty for the nation . And my stand is that we should give it to them :p