I’m going to take a step away from career/science posting for two seconds- because something I read this morning made me mad. Threaten and strike and adult, and it is a crime called assault and battery- do the same thing to a CHILD and we call it ‘discipline’.
WTF, people!?!
When I get over my outrage I’ll get back to sticking to topics I really know something about.
Blue Lab Coats 
Good point drdra.
Also, you have kids and are educated and capable of reason, correct? So why be defensive about a topic dealing with raising children? If you think about it, you probably “really know something about” it. Just a thought.
Anonymoustache-
As the mother of two daughters I do know a little something about this- I struggle with effective forms of discipline (like most parents I suppose) that don’t involve battery of a minor child (that’s what I am going to call it from now on, because that is what it is).
Can my kids make me very, very angry?? YES absolutely, no doubt about it. It is not all peace and harmony at the A household. My younger daughter knows all the right buttons to push. Is hitting her the way to teach her not to do this … NOPE.
And, oh- if a teacher ever hit her at school and I found out about it… You can be sure that we would be sitting down with the teacher, the principal AND the superintendent quicker than they could say assault and battery….
Gee, drdrA, what are you so het up about? Isn’t it obvious that the states that allow corporal punishment (Mississippi, Alabama, Texas etc.) have the best and most efficient school programs that regularly rank at the top of all educational metrics?
Oh, wait.