Wow, Betty!  Cool story!  You've talked quite a bit about your dad recently.
He sounds like he was quite a gracious and caring man.  Too bad there are so
few of them today--especially as fathers.  When I read your posts about you
and your mom and the difficulties you are having, I wonder how your dad
would have handled the situation with, say, your Grandma if they had been in
identical ciurcumstances?



-----Original Message-----
From: Betty Alfred [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2000 2:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: American Pediatric Society Take on Spanking


There was only one time when my Dad spanked me, and because of the
subsequent
event, I'm glad it happened.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Wingfield, accused me of stealing money which
I
had not stolen.  I had more than my lunch money on my person, and I think
another child's lunch money was missing.  I'm not sure if these details are
exactly correct but it was something like that.  When my Dad picked me up
from school, Mrs. W. told him I had stolen the money, and he took me in the
cloakroom and spanked me.  Later, after we were home, she called on the
phone
and told my Dad that the money had been recovered, thus I was exonerated.  I
was in bed by that time, and my Dad came in the room to tell me that my
teacher had called.  In the process of apologizing to me, he started crying.
That was the only time he spanked me, and he never spanked me after that.  I
found out later from an Aunt by marriage that my paternal grandfather had
been physically abusive of his five boys, including my Dad.

Now, I think it's very cool that my Dad could admit that he was wrong, and
also cry without feeling that his manhood was threatened.  I saw him cry
several times over the years, for one reason or another, and I don't ever
remember him being too proud to admit when he was wrong about something.

I think he was a great Dad, so I'm sharing this with you.

Betty



<<    The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly opposes striking =
 >a child. If the spanking is spontaneous, parents should later explain =
 >calmly why they did it, the specific behavior that provoked it, and how =
 >angry they felt. They might apologize to their child for their loss of =
 >control, because that usually helps the youngster understand and accept =
 >the spanking. >>