Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for June 19, 2014

Take the yo-yo;better way to kill time in the box cars.

Calvin, do you even have a Plan as to where you and Hobbes are going?! ;)

Bugs Bunny could get a street car anytime he wanted one.

You fleeing fugitives wouldn’t have been so desperate to get on a train if you’d seen “Runaway Train.” :)

Hobbes is always so chill and sarcastic…having warned calivin he thinks its not his problem anymore ..

Back in the days when 6 year olds could run around outside, unescorted. I’m glad I grew up then. If his bicycle didn’t attack him, he could travel farther away, much faster.

I remember turning the heat up because I was cold. Boy, did I ever get spanked that time. I was a very defiant kid. I got spanked a lot. Calvin never gets spanked. I like that. No harm will come to him from this, despite his fears. I wish my childhood had been like that.

Maybe Calvin should just act real cool, pretend he knows nothing about the car, and Mom will think the parking brake failed. Nah…that’ll never work…

Looking for that streetcar named desperation.

Can Calvin be nonchalant? It’s never worked before, has it?

hi

But u can never leave.

I was spanked, and I occasionally spanked my daughter. I think my grandson was spanked twice, but even today, as an adult, he can be a holy terror when he wants to aggravate us.

Face the music Calvin, own up.

For what it’s worth, I can share my experience that, for me, the punishment was irrelevant but rather if I respected the said authority figure or not. I never respected my alcoholic parents and the only regret I ever had when being punished even when I actually earned it was “I got caught” rather than “I shouldn’t have done that.” My granny, OTOH, was loving, fair, principled, and consistent, I DID respect her and a mere look of disapproval could make me cry, and with her I’d feel shame at doing wrong even if she didn’t catch me at it. And the very few spankings I got from Granny don’t bother me at all today.xRespect shouldn’t be confused with fear. Respect is maintained by walking the talk, living up to their own professed values, being able to give reasons and show fairness and consistency and about any type of discipline can work then. But parents who are “do as I say, not as I do” hypocrites, unfair, and who impose punishment (be it spanking or anything else) based on their own moods rather than the child’s behavior (so that it seems random to the child) aren’t going to have the respect, and though the fear might keep them somewhat in check it will generally only be while in reach (and once a teenager even that might not work, the teen might return violence for violence, too).

Train Train. Take me on outa this town.

I can’t help but recall Bill Cosby’s take on spankings…(I paraphrase due to faulty memory…):

Dad would tell the kid to go get a switch to beat you with.Some kids would pull up a tree and drag it home, but not Cos, he’d tear off the corner of a newspaper and tell Dad, “Go ahead, beat me to death”.

And this was truly funny, we could all relate to it. We survived growing up in the 50s and 60s….. somehow.

In fact, swift swats to the butt were so acceptable that even OTHER parents could “get your attention” without fear of reprisal. It was just the norm. In my small town, I couldn’t get away with anything. It’s as if it went “viral” way before the internet. Everyone knew, and let me know that they knew. On the other hand, on a hot Florida summer day, we left after breakfast and didn’t come in until dark, and no one worried about us. They didn’t have to.

And somehow we survived.

Jean Valjean!

Well, I think spanking was and still is appropriate! There are a lot of “children” in Wash DC who think they know how to run our country I’d like to firmly “spank”!

“I was spanked when I was a child; and I now suffer from the psychological illness of being well mannered, respectful, and industrious.”

Like PixieJane said, it’s all about how the punishment is carried out and why. Spankings are appropriate in the event of “willful defiance,” and for no other reason. Minor mistakes such as turning up the heat without knowing that’s not allowed, or leaving your bike out in the rain (even if the child was told to always put the bike away) are not reasons for spanking. In these cases, there should be consequences, but not a spanking. For example, the child left the bike out and it was stolen. The punishment is the stolen bike (and not running out and buying another one, at least for a long time). Or having the object restricted for a while, etc. Spankings are unfair in these circumstances. Now if the child is told not to do something and (s)he does it anyways, that is willful defiance and a spanking would be in order. Beatings are clearly out of the question, as are spankings done in anger or because of childish mistakes.

I would like to have a camera for Mum’s face when she notices the car in the ditch.

xxx

“Back in the days when 6 year olds would still go missing. Only you didn’t hear about it much you mean.”

Right. You and I survived, but not everyone did. It certainly was a lot less common back in the day. When I was in kindergarten and all through elementary school during the sixties, I walked to school by myself, and in sixth grade I did run into a couple of pervs exposing themselves, but thankfully not into kidnapping, I assume. When my children were small, I could not imagine letting them walk to school by themselves.

“All I am saying is that judiciously done, without MALICE, a spanking, NOT A BEATING, is an effective child-rearing tool.”

Exactly. Extreme positions are usually not suitable for real life situations. I for one was never spanked because I was extremely docile and obedient, I always followed the rules at home and at school, I always did my homework, and I was a good student. Not all children are like this, some are very willful and defiant.

I have a friend who works at the local psychiatric hospital. He and his wife (a lawyer) were deciding how to raise their kids (spank/no spank) and she was in favour of the latter and he had no opinion so they went that way.

He then, subsequently, did a literature search. From studies he found credible, he said the incidence of later life psychiatric problems in homes that use corporal punishment is 3 to 5 times greater.

Yes, kids from both types of home can come out fine or mostly fine. But the stats are pretty clear that the % of kids who will have later life issues is much greater (while still not being a massive number necessarily) in the spank homes vs. the no-spank homes.

Any given kid can work any given way, but the stats favour alternative forms of consequence and instruction. We’ve come a long way in child development psychology and neuroscience so parenting should be moving along too. Just because it worked for our generation to be spanked doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way with better overall outcomes.

“ALWAYS wrong” “Only the woefully ignorant” “physical abuse”

Be careful with generalizations. “Many kids grow up just fine without being physically punished” is truer to the mark, as is “Many kids grow up just fine with being physically punished.” A rare well-timed physical correction can do wonders for instilling personal self-discipline in a child.

How are you gonna get that far your mom will know where you are.

Just don’t get in the wheel well of a transatlantic flight

Good advice. That dude was lucky to survive.

Calvin move in with Moe. That is the last place your Mom will look. You 2 will become lovers when you are adults.