# "Even animals in the wild swat their young."



## Nurturing Mama (Nov 11, 2003)

This was said to me by my dad who believes in spanking. How would you have responded? I told him that animals also lick their butts, and I think he got my point :LOL . But I can't think of a more mature response...any ideas?


----------



## Katie's Momma (Jun 11, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Nurturing Mama*
This was said to me by my dad who believes in spanking. How would you have responded? I told him that animals also lick their butts, and I think he got my point :LOL . But I can't think of a more mature response...any ideas?

omg, that is so funny!









how about:

well they also eat their young....no? still too immature?









How about - Dad, there are a lot of different parenting styles and mine just does not include spanking.

P.S. Good for you for standing up to him. I am in the same boat with my dad who spanked my brothers and I profusely! and believes that a good spanking wouldn't hurt her now and then....I asked him once, what exactly defines a 'good' spanking?


----------



## sunnmama (Jul 3, 2003)

Not a more mature response...but my immediate thought on reading the title of the thread was "Yeah? Well the *eat their young, too!"

So now we are looking to the animal kingdom for parenting advice? Um....we are the species that were blessed with higher reasoning skills!!!!! So we could use them instead to relying on our animalistic impulses! (and, yes, I still have an impulse to hit--I just have the reasoning to stop myself)


----------



## Rainbow (Nov 19, 2001)

This is true, and at surface it makes a lot fo sense. Just think of how we defer to the animal kingdom to examplify extended nursing.

However, animals are driven by instinct. I mean, they also lick they own butts :LOL

Animals are intelligent, but from a human perspective they don't have human intelligence (except apes to some degree.) Humans on the other hand have the wonderful experience of reason- something other species don't have. You can train animals, but you can't reason with them to cooperate. A child though can be reasoned with and as humans we can use our greater intellect to more creatively discipline our children.


----------



## ShadowMom (Jun 25, 2004)

animals don't swat their young in the same way that people spank their children.

If a baby animal is trying to play with mama, and she can't play because she's (doing whatever animal mamas do), she swats him/her away. It's not used as "discipline" or a "punishment" (she doesn't decide the baby needs 10 swats with her paw, or anything like that).

Also, animals don't have LANGUAGE. The only way a mama can communicate that her baby isn't supposed to do something is by demonstrating physically.

I guess the main thing I take exception to when it comes to animals and how they treat their babies is that a mama will leave her baby to die if it gets injured. That is obviously one area where we should not look to the animal kingdom for an example.


----------



## girlndocs (Mar 12, 2004)

nak

funny thing. of all the animals, apes are built most like humans & would have the easiest time actually "swatting".

when was the last time you saw/heard of a gorilla hitting its young? a chimp? an orang?

well, that's because they don't.


----------



## Leonor (Dec 25, 2001)

Humans have been modeling their societies inspiring themselves on animals too much.


----------



## frand (May 8, 2004)

"...Thanks Dad, I'll remember that the next time I'm chasing down a moose for dinner." (Kind tone and smile)


----------



## mamaduck (Mar 6, 2002)

A child grows up to have a much bigger impact on the world than an animal does. We must be careful about what methods they internalize as "valid" for managing their environments. If we hit them, they will grow up either deferring to or utalizing such tactics (threats/violence/manipulation) in their relationships. Such behaviors have a huge impact on our society. Animals, OTOH, continue to act on instinct throughout their life-cycles. They do not have the power to affect the world that my child does.


----------



## Leatherette (Mar 4, 2003)

Sorry, can't think of a mature response......

They also eat their own vomit and fling their poop (and that's the intelligent ones - apes). Sorry, gross, I know.









L.


----------

