How Spanking Sounds to a Never-Spanked 5-Year-Old

Have you ever wondered how the idea of spanking comes across to a child who has never been spanked? I wondered, too, and given that I have a never-spanked five-year-old, I thought I’d find out. This conversation is the result.

“Sally, do you think mommies and daddies should be able to hit their children?”

“No.”

“But what if their children do something wrong? Should parents be able to hit their children then?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“They should use words, they’re not babies!”

Yes, that is her response, verbatim. In Sally’s eyes, parents who hit their children if they do something wrong are acting like babies, who hit because they have no words. Parents aren’t babies, they have words, and they should use them. 

And for anyone who questions my use of the word “hit” in this conversation, I’d like to know how else to explain spanking to a child who has never been spanked.