SPIRITED, RESPECTFUL KIDS PROVE PARENTS ACTED WELL.

Byline: Joseph Phillips

Local View

ASSEMBLYWOMAN Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, has reintroduced her anti-spanking bill to the California state Assembly. The bill amends the current child-abuse statute to define as child abuse spanking with an implement such as "a stick, a rod, a switch, an electrical cord, an extension cord, a belt, a broom or a shoe."

My knee-jerk response was that this is but more liberal, narcissistic nosiness -- an appeal to protect children as a pretense to supplant individual rights with state dictates. The current law already makes it a crime for any person to "willfully cause harm ... or inflict upon a child unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering." What can be gained by amending this language other than to have social workers and police officers second-guessing parents when they choose to use corporal punishment to discipline their children?

However, more studied meditation has me wondering if Lieber, like so many of our particular generation, is simply eschewing the old-school notions of sparing the rod and spoiling the child in favor of a new-school idea of less strident disciplinary measures. Having been on the receiving end of the old-school rod -- the shoe, the belt, the switch -- I am similarly inclined not to visit such trauma on my own children.

Still, I have from time to time engaged in a bit of "tactile aid" with my sons, and there have been occasions that I have used a belt to discipline them. Oh, I bluster a great deal. I threaten and make a big show of pulling out "the belt" (cue scary music), but I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually used it.

In my capacity as a responsible parent, I used my discretion and deemed the breach of house rules sufficient that I used a belt when they were disciplined. It wasn't pleasant for them. It hurt! It was meant to hurt. And herein lies the issue.

As a parent, it is my duty to prepare my children for an independent and adult life. Discipline is a way of teaching my children lessons meant to ensure that they become contributing members of society, rather than parasites upon that society.

There are among my neighbors those who would disagree with my methods. I would encourage them to observe that my children, while spirited, are well-behaved, honest and respectful. Where my sons are concerned, they need not fear for their safety or their property.

I would also note that while they are free to privately disagree with my methods and free to raise their children as they choose, they are not and should not be free to use the power of government to determine how I raise mine.

The change Lieber seeks in the law lumps spanking with an implement in the same category as burning, cutting or choking a child. The amendment also places the parent in the rather precarious position of having to justify the use of spanking to a judge. Failure to convince the court could result in imprisonment for up to a year.

This should not be read to mean that I favor protecting parents who harm their children. I simply remain of the opinion that parents -- even those who occasionally resort to corporal punishment -- are far better judges of the measure of discipline their children need than are police officers or social workers. I am also convinced that parents are better able to love and raise their children than is the state of California.