bostonPro Posted April 24, 2014 Posted April 24, 2014 Another step in the right direction... http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/childrens-mercy-hospital-bans-spanking Children’s Mercy Hospital is now a “hit free” zone; spanking has been banned on hospital property. The new policy comes after numerous employees witnessed parents or caregivers striking, even dragging, children as discipline. Now, if a hospital worker sees a child throwing a tantrum, they’ll give kids a coloring book or bubbles to de-escalate the situation. “We’re not trying to tell parents how to discipline their children. What they do at home is their business,” pediatric nurse practitioner Amy Terreros said. “We really want to educate our caregivers and support them white they’re here so that it’s not a stressful time for them.” If a parent or caregiver strikes a child at the hospital, a social worker will come talk to them.
dsayers Posted April 24, 2014 Posted April 24, 2014 "We're not trying to tell husbands how to discipline their wives; What they do at home is their business." Wretched. Strikes me as proof that this measure is not for the sake of health. Further evidenced by the fact that it doesn't encompass all aggression, just physical. Meaning the abusive parents will just have to resort to threats and yelling; The sort of thing that would result in criminal charges were they to try that against people that could actually fight back. I'm so embarrassed.
bostonPro Posted April 25, 2014 Author Posted April 25, 2014 That quote did make me cringe. Even though the policy isn't perfect, as you pointed out, i do still think its a positive step. Considering 90% of the people in this country still spank their kids, to have a leading children's hospital come out publicly against spanking will hopefully make a lot of parents stop and consider that maybe what they are doing is not in the best interest of their children.
JamesP Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Or, at the least, prick their awareness with a modicum of the shamefulness of their behavior.
corpus mentium Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Instead the children will be stressed as they await their physical punishment upon arriving at home. It's a good thing the caregivers won't be stressed, I guess. My dad had a similar policy at his business for his kids. Any whippings accrued during the business day were to be doled out strictly after hours, off the premises (which happened to be in the center of town), and after the 30 minute drive home. I don't remember him ever finally following through once reaching home, but the stress of the situation was a real motherfucker.
dsayers Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Even though the policy isn't perfect, as you pointed out, i do still think its a positive step. It's a step. But is it a positive one? Imagine you were in a room full of monkeys and you wrote 2+2= on the white board. After an hour, you return to find 4 handfuls of poo splattered on the board. Is this a positive step, a lucky guess, or totally unrelated to the problem? An institution whose goal is human health is in no position to half-ass something as important as human health. By enacting a policy against spanking instead of aggression, they're essentially guaranteeing they'll need to have this policy for another 20-30 years while those children who were aggressed against without spanking are there with their own children.
bostonPro Posted April 25, 2014 Author Posted April 25, 2014 It's a step. But is it a positive one? Would you say having no policy at all is as good or better than having a no-spanking policy? If not, then by default it would have to be a positive step, right. I still think its a positive step if only to expose the idea of not spanking to people who otherwise never considered it. And perhaps exposing them to that idea will lead them down a path of eliminating all forms of aggression against their children. I don't have any kids yet (though i have one on the way) and up until a year or so ago, I, like so many others thought spanking (not beating, but a light tap on the butt) was perfectly fine. Then I was exposed to the idea of no spanking at all and looked at the effects that it had on children. This lead me to realize that other, non physical, forms of aggression such as a timeout also has negative effects. Its like a rabbit hole, i think just exposing people to the idea of not spanking can get them to follow the rabbit hole down a path to completely eliminating aggression from their lives. And who knows, maybe when the hospital sends the social working to talk with the parents that spank, they'll explain that all forms of aggression are harmful. Then again, i'm an optimist.
dsayers Posted April 25, 2014 Posted April 25, 2014 Would you say having no policy at all is as good or better than having a no-spanking policy? Did you read the rest of what was said? I don't know if A policy is better than NO policy. It depends on what the policy is and how it was arrived upon. Did you read the quotes by Amy Terreros that you posted? This is not a policy for protecting the children or educating caregivers if their attitude is, "Sure, go full bore while at home, just don't bring it here." There's no integrity in the policy. They guessed part of the answer right while being qualified to use a principled approach to get the entire answer correct correctly.
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