Well... Today was another long day. YES, because I spent it with the family.

I can't wait til I have a house all to myself and I get to lay back in my gentle, quiet solitude. wonderfulwonderfulwonderful.

Or something.

Anyway, got up this morning around 8ish and went out to "Fabreeze the motorhome". *chuckles* Sounds kinda kinky doesn't it?

I just sprayed Fabreeze on pretty much every surface of the RV and put newspaper down on the wet step. There's a definate leak in the RV and since Dad is not exactly the best man for the job of covering the beast, the leak is just exacerbated.

Eventually, they're gonna get it checked out and such, but we're hoping for some fundage first. *smirks*

Regardless, the whole family piled into the RV to take a day trip down to Sea Side. It was a wonderful trip and all, but I get so damned tired of the family sometimes.

I'm not sure what exactly it is about me, but I'm sure it's my own shortfall, rather than anything specifically about the family. *shrugs* Just another of those things that I would over-analyze if I had half the desire to do so.

Right now I want to bitch and complain. Of course, the topic I want to bitch and complain about is completely and totally petty. Just complaints about various family members.

So, I'm not going to do that.

Heh.

I got to talk with Charles a little bit tonight. He actually braved the assinine butt munchers in Yahell tonight. I'm so proud of him. Of course, it got boring so he left, for which I don't blame him at all.

Yahell has gotten really, really bad. It's been overrun with pathetic little dweeboes. Or something. People who think that they have to be all powerful.

It seems to me that most of the younger people in Yahell RP are there to prove themselves the masters of their collective universe. It's like they think that because their real lives are sub par, they need to prove how god-like they are.

*shakes her head* It's absolutely pathetic.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

I wanna bitch about discipline. Yes, I know, I complain about a lot of things, and I know, I don't have children, so I really have no right to bitch about how to discipline them... but tough shit. I am fully aware that when I finally have kids, most of my blanket statements will be ripped to shreds... but I am willing to take that risk.

So... what do I specifically want to focus on?

spanking.

I am firmly in favor of spanking. Open handed, belt, switch... all of those methods. Many people say that spanking is simply a form of physical abuse.

Sorry folks. All of you who believe that are just plain wrong.

Spanking is not abuse.

And again, I say. Spanking is NOT abuse.

Beating is abuse.

spanking is not beating.

Spanking is the action of striking another human being with the intent to correct a wrong behavior. It is done with the desire to correct behavior.

Beating is the action of striking another human being with the intent to cause bodily harm. Beating is done in anger.

The main key to spanking is to never do so in anger. That is how you keep the spanking from turning into a beating.

Agree or disagree as is your wont.

I was watching a show the other day and the husband was angry with his wife... or rather, irritated... because she would spank their daughter. He believed that there was no reason to ever hit another human being. No matter what. The wife disagreed.

The wife had two other children from a previous marriage, both of whom got spanked while they were growing up. Both of those kids (since the youngest was 16, I can't really call them children... I'll settle for "kids") were polite, respectful people. They were not shy or scared or nervous or gun-shy so to speak.

The wife was upset because the five year old daughter would treat her father with disrespect. The daughter would NOT treat the mother with disrespect or whiney petulance. But the father was a different story.

The little girl would tell her father to shut up, to leave her alone, to go away, to get lost. Those sorts of things. From a five year old.

The father said that it was freedom of expression.

The final comment on the show was that if the child had the right to freedom of expression, then the wife had the right to bear arms.

I agree.

Yes, there is a fine line between spanking and beating. But there doesn't have to be. The line is in the motivation. What is the purpose for striking someone else?

I believe that there are some cases where aggressive physical contact is fully and completely warrented. Specifically when a man is irrational and beating a woman, as was the case with my brother and his ex-wife 8 and a half years ago when she was nine months preggers with my youngest Nephew...

My brother was beating her. Pounding on her. He punched her in the stomach. A few times. And I saw this. I stepped between them and stood as a guard, so to speak. He tried shoving me out of the way, but I outweighed him by about 150 lbs at the time and I was about five or so inches taller than he.

He hit me in the face. He was enraged, furious and completely out of control. He was screaming. I was calm and standing still, completely and totally non-emotional. I told him to leave. He refused and tried to hit me.

I hit him back. Once. My punch sent him to the floor. He stared up at me in a rage. He got back up and hit me again. I told him to leave, he refused. He moved to hit me yet again. I hit him. Punched him. Again he hit the floor. He stood up in an absolute rage, face red, spittle flying everywhere, murder in his eyes.

He didn't try to hit me again. I escorted him from the apartment and locked him out. It was his apartment.

Sometimes that kind of physical contact is necessary. Dan would NOT have left if I had not knocked him to the floor.

I believe I used physical voilence in the way it was meant to be used. I did not go to any extreme. I did not beat my brother. I just made it possible for him to see that he couldn't win through physical means.

With my Nephew, who inheirited my brother's nasty-ass temper, I have been required to spank him on many occassions. My Nephew has pushed me to the point of actually being pissed off. I have wanted to beat him when I was angry, but I didn't. I HAVE bodily picked him up and put him in his room while he was screaming like a fucking air-raid siren.

After the first two months or so of watching him every day, where he had to be forcibly disciplined at least three times a week, he finally seemed to get the point.

Now, it usually takes just a look or a few words to get him to quit the shit. He's 8 now. When watching him, over the past few years. Well, in the past four years, I have only had to spank him maybe three times. That is a tremendous improvement.

In the past year and a half, I haven't had to spank him at all. I HAVE had to pick him up and put him in his room a couple times. ANd I've had to close the door and hold it closed when he was banished to solitude in his room. But only a few times over the past year.

He is improving drastically. And, I honestly believe that is due, in large part, to his being spanked when he was younger.

I have spoken with people who are my age now, and older, who were spanked in their childhood. I'm talking about those who were spanked not beaten.

Of those people, not a one of them regreted being spanked. Not a one of them believes, to date, that spanking is wrong, bad or detrimental to their health, physical or psychological.

On the show I mentioned a little ways up there, one argument the husband put forward was that if children weren't hit, they would never learn to hit. He stated that there is so much violence and hatred in this world because children were spanked.

I disagree. Stridently.

I have seen proof of the oposite being true.

I watched people when I was younger. I watched kids whose parents never spanked them. And I watched kids whose parents spanked them a few times. I watched kids whose parents spanked them often.

Out of those three... the only kids that are irritating pains in the ass now, are those who never got spanked. They have no respect for other people, they have no respect for other's privacy and they seem to believe that they're above everyone else in this world.

I don't want to raise disrespectful or mean children. However, I do not, under any circumstances believe that spanking will make a kid go bad.

I also don't subscribe to the foolish notion that spanking only teaches kids to hit. That's complete and utter bullshit. Hitting in anger teaches kids to hit. Hitting a child across the butt three or four times, or seven as is sometimes needed, after stating why they're getting the spanking... after wards, asking if they know why they got the spanking and correcting the information if they got it wrong... that's discipline, not abuse.

Spanking is for the purpose of changing wrong behavior. If it is done for any other purpose, then it becomes abuse and wrong.

*shrugs*

Yeah, okay, so this is my opinion and many of you may not agree.

However, I WILL spank my children if the need ever arises. I will spank my children for intentionally lying. I will spank them for stealing. I will spank them for showing blatant disrespect. I don't mean just a rolling of the eyes.

I've watched other shows where these young kids, 9 10 and 11 year olds, are yelling and screaming at their mothers. These little kids were giving their mothers the finger and telling them to fuck off.

Uh uh. That doesn't happen in my house. My kids are fully welcome to disagree with any decision I make. They are fully welcome to tell me, in soft-spoken, communication-oriented tones, that they disagree with me. But they are NOT allowed to ever tell me to fuck off. They are not, ever allowed to give me the finger. They are not EVER allowed to yell and scream at me.

I am their mother (or will be, whenever I have kids). The position alone is worthy of respect.

It's kind of the way I feel about the president. Specifically with Clinton in office.

I didn't respect the man at all. I thought he was a creep and a liar. However, because he was the President, he deserved respect. The position is what garnered the respect. Not the man.

Therefore, my children don't have to like me, but they do have to repsect my position.

And, if I ever caught my children yelling, screaming or swearing at their father... well, let's hope I get to them before their father does.

*chuckles*

Night folks. I'm tired so I'm out of here.