Spanking; Good or Bad

In the 22-years that I have been a parent, I have never spanked, I may have thought about it but never did. I just never could justify that way of parenting. I was never spanked as a child and maybe that type of parenting just spilled over into my parenting. Fortunately, I surround my self with like-minded moms and dads who are the most patient people that I know.

I follow the same rule: "Discipline" doesn't mean punishment. In fact, it comes from the same root as "disciple,"--you want your child to follow you (through love and devotion), into right action.

I do think that having a pretty mellow, sweet and good mannered seven-year-old is because I follow this way of thinking. But sometimes I wonder what the 9-year-old change will bring because I have heard some stories!

So the reason I have decided to post about this is because of a study I recently read on msn.com, Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior. Now I am curious what you all have to say.....

Below are some pictures of Aden's first field trip to a local Bio-Dynamic Farm. They were able to visit Bella, a pregnant cow due to give birth early March, feed her fennel and help get the sheep out to pasture for grazing. They visited the chickens, learned about the bee hives and were able to pick some broccolli for a snack. We then went on a long walk towards the American River, stopped and had lunch, climbed up to a very steep rock hill and then the class decided they wanted a very hefty fallen branch back to the top, so "heaved" it up and made it (no small feat)! We then walked to a very old oak tree but the class decided they would rather climb a burned down tree and they were covered from head to toe in ash. It was an amazing day!