A new study confirms that you shouldn’t hit a child under 1. Know I thought that no one should hit a child pretty much every, but 1 or less years old is just flabbergasting to me. The study also goes on to say that on average these children where hit 2.5 times per week!
The study found that children who were spanked at age 1 had more aggressive behaviors at age 2 and performed worse on measures of thinking abilities at age 3.
Being spanked at age 2, however, did not predict more aggressive behaviors at age 3, possibly because the spanking had begun at age 1 and by age 2 the kids were already more aggressive.
I don’t believe in hitting young children and I would like to say I’m going to be a follower of gentle discipline and never hit my child, but there was a couple of times as a teen that a good smack was what I needed. But just the thought of lifting my hands in anger and hitting my little man is just out of my range of ability. I couldn’t imagine ever doing it for any reason, ever.
I also thought that many people where like me, then I started doing some reaserch on a forum that I often lurk on but never post on Whattoexpect.com specifically the December 2008 section because that is our section. And I recently came across this thread titled: Too Early for Smacking Hands? And I’m just amazed that these moms are hitting babies the same age as Xander.
Any thoughts?
