[fabsroman]

Hopefully, Jack is right.

I went to Target today for our Christmas pictures. While I was there, I had to listen to a 2+ year old kid cry and carry on because his mother wouldn't let him walk around the store. I was getting sick.

Me, I got spanked all of once when I was a kid. I was 5 or 6 years old. My brother and I got into a fight over a stupid video game and we were sent to our room by our mother for the rest of the day to wait for our father to get home. If there was one thing my dad hated, it was fighting amongst ourselves. Anyway, he took off his belt when he got home and started with my brother. My brother started crying like a girl and he stopped. Then, he started with me and I wouldn't cry and I wouldn't flinch. He ended up hitting me with the buckle, by accident I am sure, and I was bleeding, but I didn't cry. It was probably 5 whacks or less in all. Afterward, my brother, an experienced punihshment taker, told me to cry right away and he would stop. Luckily, I never had to take my brother up on his advice because I was never spanked again.

We didn't carry on in stores like I see so many kids do nowadays. If we started to carry on, all my dad had to say to us was "I'll give you something to cry about when we get back to the car, and we knew he meant business."

My uncle used to discipline the heck out of my cousins. Sometimes he would pull them by the ear when he was really mad. He passed away a couple of years ago, but his three kids are all doing well. One of them had his own medical research firm that did cancer and aids research. Before that, he did research for NIH. After he sold his firm, he stayed on as a consultant until a job in Milan came up that was like a dream job for him. He continues to do medical research in Milan using state of the art equipment that he says is not available in the US. Another cousin just bought a $1.5 million 5,000 sqaure foot house on 2 1/2 acres. Of crouse, my uncle and aunt own a $1.3 million 4,500 square foot house on 2 1/2 acres down the road from him. The third cousin is an engineer for Chrysler.

If only a little ear pulling by every parent could achieve such results.

Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate spanking children while mad. It is kind of like correcting a dog when you are mad. You end up doing something that you normally wouldn't. I also do not advocate child abuse. There is quite a difference between spanking and beating. If spankings are leaving bruises, I believe that the parent has crossed the line. If they result in broken bones, they are so far across the line that the line cannot even be seen anymore.

Now, that just leaves me to wonder how I turned out the way I did and my brother who is a year younger than me turned out completely the opposite.