“What’s the big deal?” some say. “So what if a parent beats their kid? I was beat and I turned out all right.”
Well, no. No, you didn’t. You’re not all right, because you think it’s OK to beat kids. 
There are many things our parents and grandparents did that are not all right. For instance, there used to be no law against raping your wife. She’s your property, right? The fact that your parents thought this was just fine does not make it just fine.
At the same time, there certainly are people who go way too far in the other direction — I’ve had cases where parents were charged with neglect for the most ridiculous of things (“You left your kids alone for ten minutes while you went to the store!”) I am not falling for the slippery slope argument here. But beating your kid? I mean, really beating them so it hurts? No, we should be past those days now.
My parents would whap me with a flyswatter on my butt. That was the extent of their “beatings.” It only hurt psychologically. But even so, that was in the 60s, and things have changed. I don’t want to open the door and make distinctions (“If you hit your kid with a soft flyswatter, that’s OK, but a hard one? No way.”) I think we should be telling parents not to hit their kids at all.
An assault is an assault. It doesn’t become a “not-assault” simply because it was your child. Your children are not your property.
It is wrong to hit your wife; it is wrong to hit your husband; it is wrong to hit your friends; it is wrong to hit strangers; it is wrong to hit your pets; it is wrong to hit anyone.
And it is especially wrong to hit a small child.
Personally, I find it annoying that Adrian Peterson tried shoring up his rep by tweeting religious quotes as if that made his actions of beating his kid with a switch ‘okay’.
Worse, I saw some foolish people claiming that using a switch like that was okay because ‘It’s in the bible’. It’s that particular attitude, that really steams my clams! Mainly because I happen to think that you should be able to have morality that does not need to come from there. The bible is a DEAD document – it’s not being updated like the constitution is for pete’s sake. Such adaptations are a requirement for a proper living & breathing society and you need those changes in order for a successful society to continue thriving. Otherwise, people tend to trade it out for something else that works better for them and eventually it becomes extinct.
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Any bible thumper saying it’s in there so it’s ok, point out the part where it’s ok to sell your daughter and see if they’re ok with slavery. Exodus 21:7 – “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.”
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Our moral standards are not even the same as they were 50 years ago. To use a book written thousands of years ago for your moral standard is indeed ridiculous.
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