Excuse me, why are you so angry?

When I lived in Eden Prairie I had a really good friend named Ding. His family was from Asia and his parents and grandma spoke no English. I always remember when Ding and I would be playing his grandmother would come out and start yelling at him in their language. I would just be looking at her then Ding with a scared look because I didn't know what she was saying and I didn't know if he was in a lot of trouble. She would always spank Ding and his brother, and it always scared me. I always felt that they were getting into trouble because I was playing with them.

So throughout all the times him and I were friends, there were many times where she would come out yelling at him. And he would always say that he had to go inside. Now, I have come to learn that her "yelling" was actually just how their culture communicated with the younger kids. It was not because she was mad at him and he was not in trouble, it was just her being stern with him so he knew who was in charge. The spanking was seen as ok in their culture and they did not see it as child abuse, just a way to discipline.

In our society it is frowned upon to yell and spank our children. Spanking is seen as a form of child abuse. In a way I feel as though that is ridiculous, but in a way I can understand. Yes, if you are creating bruises on the child or any kind of mark, that can be considered child abuse, but if you tap the child or spank the child once in a while after they misbehave then that should be ok.

As I sit and watch "Nanny 911" the nannies believe that spanking just creates more problems and will make the child misbehave even more. They think that if you make them have time outs and get down onto the child's level to see what is wrong and why they were misbehaving, that it will solve the problems and make the child will then begin to respect you as the adult figure.

Each society has different views on how they must discipline their children and its important if you move to a different culture that you learn to understand their rules/laws so that way if you are use to doing one thing a certain way, that you change it so you wont get into trouble.

"Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can really tell when he's in trouble" --Dennis Fakes