“Go get my belt.” A phrase all too familiar in a spanking household. Your body tenses up, your tears freeze mid trickle down your face, and you suddenly feel the need to pee. Spankings, whoppings, licks, love taps, a dose of act-right, discipline; whatever you want to call it, was every kid’s nightmare. The cause of the whimper, lip quivering, runny nose and short gasping breaths. The way most kids learned respect. You can almost always tell the difference between a child that’s disciplined and a child that co-runs the house. Physically disciplined children know better and if they don’t, they gone learn today. All it takes is that special look from mom or dad, and you were snapped back into reality.

Sometimes people like to say white people and black people discipline their children differently; like spanking versus a five-minute time out.

But as time goes on, fewer and fewer parents are taking the spanking route. In fact, it’s becoming labeled as “child abuse.” Many Millennials wish this was the case back when we were little, but was it really more effective than we’d like to give it credit for? When I asked fellow college students about their childhood experiences in terms of discipline, most stories were the same.

“My great grandfather chased me down the street with a switch when I was seven.” -Arielle Wallace

“I had a tag team butt whopping when I was crazy enough to try to swing back on my mom.” -Aliah Williamson

“I remember having one whoppin’, then waiting for the other parent to get home for part two.” -Atira Kennedy

“I remember trying to be super good and helpful all day hoping they would forget.” -Candasee

“My mom used to grab our legs and tell us, ‘you bet not.’" -Kym Kennedy

“I used to get whooped every day at 5:15 when my dad got home for a year and always with a random house object.” -AJ Peters

While many memories may be humorous or painful flashbacks, the real question is just how effective is spanking? Many believe that because it is in the bible—Proverbs 13:24 “he who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly”—then it justifies spanking a child as corrective discipline. However, there are other ways to get the point across; and no I don’t mean a time out. One mother stated, “I told my son that if he kept acting up in school, then I would hold his hand down the hallway.” Many children respond to verbal correction like explaining the level of disappointment, a recall of rewards like denying a child something they want, or physical correction like spanking. However, when physical discipline is included, then parents are teaching children that violence is the answer when it isn’t. Practice what you preach right? Why beat children if they’re just doing what children do? Slaves used to get beat for not following orders and that’s the same behavior we’re exhibiting towards children. If parents don’t hit other adults/teens for “acting up,” then why do it to a defenseless child?

I asked a couple people their opinion on the effectiveness of spanking…

“I can be disrespectful at times now, but being physically disciplined helped me even more.” -Brittany Waller

“It taught me consequences which is a lesson I still carry as an adult. If I don’t want my butt whopped literally or figuratively, I’ll make the right decisions." -Aliah Williamson

“If I didn’t have some form of discipline as a child, I’d be one wild, loud mouth, disrespectful, homeless child.” -Atira Kennedy

So when does physical discipline become physical abuse? One Hampton student devised her own definition of that border line…

“If there are scars or physical damage that takes a while to heal, then it’s abuse.” -Jasmine Lewis

So while spanking may have/be effective in terms of children learning respect and how to follow rules, it is not the only solution. There are many ways to persuade people to follow the rules and teach children right from wrong without inflicting pain from the leather of a belt.