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Jo is pro-spanking

Teens are wild in the streets. There is no longer any respect for authority. Manners are yesterday’s news. And elderly people fear for their lives when they step out of their doorway. And yet the Daily News’ Denis Hamill is upset that the Appellate court ruled that a spanking did not constitute excessive corporal punishment.

The 8-year old was cursing up a storm at a party and the parent spanked her. What did he expect the parent to do, give the kid a time out and take away her cellphone for a week? Give me a break.

Before all of you get in my face, I don’t believe that a parent should beat a child, but a smack on the fanny is not a beating.

Let’s face it — all the Dr. Spock methods really haven’t worked. There is more disrespect now than ever before. I would never dream of answering my parents back, or any authority figure, and that includes teachers, police officers, elderly people — hell no, not even the postman. And all it took was a little fear that my parents might spank me if I did. Did this mar my psyche for all eternity?

No it didn’t.

I can honestly say I have no long-lasting psychological defects stemming from a whack on the backside when I was 10 because I disrespected my mother. In fact, as a result of that whack on the backside I grew up having a very healthy respect for authority and I stayed on the straight and narrow.

Can we say that for most of the youth of today?

No.

The job of a parent is to set ground rules, nurture his child, raise her with respect and tolerance of others, and provide realistic boundaries for his children to follow, in order that the child grow to be a responsible adult and an asset to the community. If a spanking will accomplish that, so be it.

Not every child is a star athlete, nor a mathematical genius. Not every child is destined for greatness in the history books. But every child is destined to grow up and become a useful part of society, to benefit this world, and leave it a better place after they have gone.

Children are no longer taught the golden rule, nor how to respect anyone or anything.

Mr. Hamill adds that it “gets worse” because a California court ruled that a mother who whacked her daughter on the rear with a wooden spoon does not qualify as domestic violence, and that “somebody smack me,” and “How can we forget this soon?”

How dare he equate a parent spanking a child with the horrible beating death of Myles Dobson, the 4-year-old boy who was tortured and murdered by a psychotic babysitter.

Sorry, Mr. Hamill, but a smack on the backside does not an abusive parent make.

Yes, there will always be someone who is violent. Yes, Mr. Hamill, there will always be tragedies in this world where innocent children are hurt. But not every parent is an abusive fiend who lives to torture their child, nor is spanking aberrational behavior.

For thousands of millennium parents have spanked their children when it was warranted. It did not result in a world of abused, damaged, and psychologically marred individuals who grew to be depraved, wanton felons.

Not for Nuthin™, but a long time ago, a very wise mother gave me some very wise words: “To be a little afraid is not a bad thing.”

Maybe a child should be a little afraid of that whack on the backside. Maybe, Mr. Hamill, the streets would be a little safer out there for the elderly people that walk in fear because no one taught the young thug out there to respect, or to be a little afraid of that whack on the backside with a wooden spoon, if they didn’t.

Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.

Joanna DelBuono writes about national issues — like child rearing — every Wednesday on BrooklynDaily.com. E-mail her at jdelbuono@cnglocal.com.