I got a phone call last night from the family of a friend who lives out in California (I "think" they are near Sacramento now). My friend is suffering from Gulf War Syndrome and has to see specialists on a regular basis. He and his wife have lost custody of their children and both of them are now in jail because one of their children lightly mentioned to a teacher in school that she was punished with a spanking with a belt at home. I first thought something is not right here, something got miscommunicated, these people are not abusive in any manner, this cannot be for real. Well, guess what, this appears to be VERY real!!! :eek:

On 4/18/2007 - Bill AB 755 known as the "No Spanking Bill" got passed and it appears that it may be now illegal to spank your children in California. The punishment warrants up to 1-yr in Jail and up to 1-yr of your children staying in the State's custody.

From what the family told me, they said this is not common knowledge and they do not recall hearing anything about it. I would think this would've made headline news (and maybe it did) but either way I thought it should be shared. Very frustrating that an Assembly Member who has never had or cared for children of her own (Sally Lieber) can become the State's expert on proper punishment.

Has this actually passed to become law? I'm hoping that someone on here will tell me that I'm wrong.

http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/index.asp?RefID=3813&body=Focus

http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a22/pdf/AB755CorporalPunishmentBill.pdf

Sorry for the post. From what I've found it doesn't look like it has been incorporated into law yet. I'll be sending these links to his family and hopefully they'll have this resolved soon. You guys in Cali might want to keep an eye on this one. <whew!>

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=73587729404+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

Go Dems Go!:rolleyes:

Yeah .. it didn't pass.

LOL .. the proper technique will ensure that the message is delivered, but w/o leaving "objective" or "visual" evidence ...

????

Spanking a child is a no-no in Cali..

But im glad to see spanking a 20 something porn actress while being filmed in a downtown warehouse is still allowed.

Those silly California laws.. :D

We are becoming a way too sensative country. Thanks to the media, and politicians wanting to keep their lavish jobs. Sure there are limits, but making it a law that you cant spank your kids. So who in california is going to take care of these kids when they get kicked out of the house for striking their parents??? California legal system is going to get overrun.

I will go to jail every day of the week before I allow my child to do something that requires an attitude adjustment.

So basically, spanking your kids is worse than losing your kids, because if you spank your kids to discipline them, you will go to jail and lose your kids....and this is suppose to help your kids, how is this better for kids to be without their parents? What a screwed up society we live in or at least in California.

Not just in Cali. If your child tells a teacher here in Maryland that they were spanked, you get to go to court, take anger management couseling and social service scrutany until the child is 18.

The teachers are scared of the parents and the principle, plus they tell the kids if you parents or anyone at home hits you let us know. The parents are scared to touch the kids. So who will the child listen too? And folks wonder why the kids are off the hook today.

I grew up "Old Skool"...Spare not the Rod and Spoil the Child...I remember if my neighbor see me doing something bad..They will spank me and when my father comes home and hears about it I will get a spankin again..You think I will make that same mistake again...HELL NO!!! The KIDS of today have no manners and no respect for their Elders all because of these Laws...

I remember getting sent to the principals office once during elementary school where he sat me down, called my parents, explained the meaning of "corporal punishment" and then I recieved four swats with the paddle (and he was a part time tennis instructor). When I got home I recieved another spanking, believe you me, I never forged my parents signature on a test paper again! I am a firm believer in nipping it in the bud.

Anti spankers need a good spanking themselves. To me, the choice to spank a child is similar to choosing religion, sexuality, etc. Its a personal private decision. There is a difference between spanking and hitting. Spanking is a litttle ouch that lasts a minute or two. Hitting causes damage. Glad I don't live in the United Secular Democratic Republic de California.

From the other end of this I grew up with an abusive father. Mostly mental abuse but phsyical as well. I recall one incident when I was 7 years old where I fell off a skate board and slid on the pavement for 10 feet on my face (as you can imagine, I was f-ed up :( ). His response when he got home was to look at me with disgust and raise his hand to slap me in the face. I guess he felt bad because he just muttered what an a-hole I was and stormed off. At the time I wish I had some recourse but I could do nothing.

I do not think a slap on the butt to discourage bad behavior is wrong, but I do not agree that parents can do what ever they want to kids.

From the other end of this I grew up with an abusive father. Mostly mental abuse but phsyical as well. I recall one incident when I was 7 years old where I fell off a skate board and slid on the pavement for 10 feet on my face (as you can imagine, I was f-ed up :( ). His response when he got home was to look at me with disgust and raise his hand to slap me in the face. I guess he felt bad because he just muttered what an a-hole I was and stormed off. At the time I wish I had some recourse but I could do nothing.

I do not think a slap on the butt to discourage bad behavior is wrong, but I do not agree that parents can do what ever they want to kids.
Me too Bro!! My Natural Father used to regularly beat me to a bloody pulp and he came very close to killing my Mama for proteceting my little Sis before she finally decided to leave his sorry butt. I grew up thinking of ways to put him down permanently almost everyday of my life. Of course, I never will but if he ever comes too close to us again, I can guarantee that he will never walk again. He walked right past me face to face at my Grandmother's Funeral about 2 years ago and he had no clue who I am.

The thing that we have to remember is that is NOT spanking, that's abuse. This is one of the reasons why I have always chosen to use a belt only (never a hand) on my children's bottoms and only when absolutely necessary. I have also always practiced cooling down first and I always tried to spank them somewhat soft and talked to them first and between each swat to make sure that it wasn't overdone. There's a HUGE difference.

Personally, I feel that using a hand is more degrading than using a belt somewhat softly and I've always felt that a spanking does not need to hurt physically at all, it's just there to let them know that there can be worse consequences if they do not want to listen or play the "but I forgot" too many times when hurting each other. In my opinion, the fact that I have tried to never make a spanking physically hurt when they know it could has probably been a big asset. Too many hard spankings and they eventually don't hurt physically anyway so why treat your babies that way, right? Especially when soft ones can work just as well for most situations. ;)

The problem is that alot of these bonehead "experts" that have never raised a child think they understand when they don't have a clue.

Me too Bro!! My Natural Father used to regularly beat me to a bloody pulp and he came very close to killing my Mama for proteceting my little Sis before she finally decided to leave his sorry butt. I grew up thinking of ways to put him down permanently almost everyday of my life. Of course, I never will but if he ever comes too close to us again, I can guarantee that he will never walk again. He walked right past me face to face at my Grandmother's Funeral about 2 years ago and he had no clue who I am.

The thing that we have to remember is that is NOT spanking, that's abuse. This is one of the reasons why I have always chosen to use a belt only (never a hand) on my children's bottoms and only when absolutely necessary. I have also always practiced cooling down first and I always tried to spank them somewhat soft and talked to them first and between each swat to make sure that it wasn't overdone. There's a HUGE difference.

Personally, I feel that using a hand is more degrading than using a belt somewhat softly and I've always felt that a spanking does not need to hurt physically at all, it's just there to let them know that there can be worse consequences if they do not want to listen or play the "but I forgot" too many times when hurting each other. In my opinion, the fact that I have tried to never make a spanking physically hurt when they know it could has probably been a big asset. Too many hard spankings and they eventually don't hurt physically anyway so why treat your babies that way, right? Especially when soft ones can work just as well for most situations. ;)

The problem is that alot of these bonehead "experts" that have never raised a child think they understand when they don't have a clue.

I feel you bro. I was set on two occations to take him out. Once because he wrote me a letter threatening to kill my dog (after not speaking to him for 10 years) and another time because he was threatening my mom. She decided to go back to him after all this (of course they broke up again) so I wrote her off and have not spoken to her in years. Hardline yes, but my reasoning is that by going back to him she excused all his behavior and the resulting mental effects on the family. Oh well, they'll both be dead in the next 10 years or so in which case I will not have to worry about it.

I think it's great that you take time to cool off. That's the one issue that I have with parents - they often are hitting their kids out of anger, not to teach them a lesson. As adults, we should be responsible and allow logic to dictate our actions rather than emotions. Trust me, if I hit someone everytime I was inclined I would be in jail now ;)

I am Sorry to hear what both you and Pops went through...

Yeah, I got my share of spankings and probably deserved all of 'em (probably should of had my a$$ whoopped for all the things I got away with). I would not rate any of them as abuse.

Hitting for no reason or beating cause you are angry, that is the kind of $hit that scars your phsyci and can mess up your life. Thank goodness you guys were strong enough to make it through that time of your life.

I had a cousin who got beat all of the time. My aunt (rest her soul) was really old school and attributed him not doing stuff or what he was told to being lazy and hard headed. As it turns out, he was hard of hearing and it got worse because of the punishment he suffered. Damn, it is hard just thinking about some of the smacking around he got!

:moon: Ouch! :moon: Ouch! :moon: Ouch!