Thank goodness parents are not spanking their children

Before our kids developed the mass murder approach to problem solving

Yep.  Apparently, once again we find that fewer parents than ever are spanking their kids.  That number has been dropping for decades.  The majority of parents 50 years ago spanked and used other forms of traditional means for raising children.  By the 1990s, that number had hit the halfway point, being around 50%.  Today, it's down to about 35% of parents still spanking.

And isn't the world a better place for it! The world of doctors and experts rejoice, of course, for they have been preaching for years that parents should not use negative reinforcement, but should use positive reinforcement.  You know, the Time Out approach. 

Here's my thing.  As I've said in other areas, I believe never before have those who would reclaim a traditional understanding of Creation, and its subsequent values, had the chance to make the argument like today.  Consider this. These 'experts' in child behavior laud parents for listening to them and changing traditional wisdom where raising children are concerned.  And in what context do they do this? 

That would be a world where drugs and drug addiction, in addition to mental health crises, among youth and children are at all times highs.  A world in which teen suicide is at its highest rates ever, and for the first time suicide is a leading cause of death for children as young as ten years old.  Did you get that?  Suicide is now a leading cause of death for children as young as ten!  That's my youngest's age.   We won't even discuss that we are having a national dialogue about arming teachers because of the all too common mass murdering happening in our schools between students.  Nor does it count the rise in violent crimes in general among our youth. 

It takes a certain level of moxie to say 'ever since you've listened to our new game plan, we've had one losing season after another ... great job!'  But that's just what is happening here.  And it's happening beyond just the world of child psychology.  How many things today are we told the experts have been right about that a plain and common sense appraisal screams otherwise?

My wife and I say that nothing makes you question the 'child experts' more than having kids fourteen years apart.  When our youngest was born, it seemed as if half of the things those experts told us we must do for our newborns in the 90s were the opposite by 2009.  The most glaring was the idea in the 90s that newborns must be forced to sleep on their sides to avoid death by SIDS (that's Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - meaning babies die and we don't know why).  When our youngest was born, they said newborns should be forced to sleep on their backs to avoid death by SIDS.  We brought up putting him on his side and were told no way, that could be fatal.  So what could kill our newborn in 2009 is just what you told us we had to do in 1995? 

We still live in the 'scientists, experts and researchers rock!' world where we assume coffee must be bad for you since the new research suggests last week's research about the health benefits of coffee is wrong.  And we do that with, well, everything.  Not just medical, not just behavioral, and not just dealing with children.

I'm not saying grab clubs and start beating you kids.  To be honest, I've seldom spanked our kids, saving it for the most extreme punishment for potentially life and death violations on their parts.  For that matter, I seldom yell or raise my voice.  But is it possible that at least something has gone wrong in our approach to  child rearing?   Certainly it wouldn't only be this one subject.  For instance, I'm not saying we ignore the impact of both mom and dad scurrying into the workplace and letting minimum wage workers raise our kids in their formative years and the impact that could have.  But is it worth at least considering the possibility that following the experts on this hasn't led to a better world for our kids? 

Or is it just Trump's fault?  I guess it could be that.