Alternatives to spanking children and how to deal with rebellious tweens and teens

After South Africa’s Constitutional Court in 2019 upheld a high court ruling that corporal punishment at home is unconstitutional, many parents protested that they were raised that way – it’s African culture, after all.

But is it an African tradition to spank or beat children? And does it produce responsible adults?

“No!” says the data. Physical discipline is not rooted in African culture but in colonialism. Studies show that hitting children contributes to domestic and community violence and can even reduce children’s intellectual capacity.

Spanking is a colonial import

“The beating of children was brought to this continent through missionaries and missionary schools, said Sonia Vohito of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, and the custom became entrenched across the continent. Pre-colonial means of discipline should be remembered and applied, she said. “We need to get back to traditional practices of how children were raised”, teaching values through storytelling and illustration.

The problem is global, and its harmful effects are multi-generational.

“When children are exposed to violence in the home, there’s a high possibility for a boy when he grows up, to become a perpetrator and for a girl when she grows up, to become a victim”, said Isabel Magaya, a researcher at the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria.

Divya Naidoo, Child Protection Programme Manager for Save the Children South Africa, sought to allay fears of criminal prosecution against parents. “It’s not in the best interests of the child to have their parents charged and put in jail” she said. “We’re looking at getting those parents some good programming so that they can learn new ways of disciplining children.”

A large study of schools in several West African countries found that where corporal punishment was not practised, pupils scored five points higher, on average, on IQ tests. The findings may also apply to physical discipline at home. “When you’re fearful, your adrenaline spikes,” said Bower. “Every adrenaline spike kills cells in a developing brain.”

From ages 10 and above, children should not be spanked.

1. Children are prone to disobedient behaviors and are not fully developed cognitively to understand consequences of their actions.
Spanking children under 10 should be avoided and used only as a last resort for correcting bad behavior.

2. Children above 10 are naturally stubborn and will become immune to spanking having received spankings for the first 10 years of their lives.
They actually brace themselves for the spankings and damn the consequences.

3. Spanking should be stopped entirely when a child reaches teenage years. At this rebellious stage, you should be ready for WAR! Spanking is never the answer.

You constantly have to battle between trying to protect your young children and throwing in the towel. Many families have opted for sending their children to boarding schools or abroad to pass off the responsibility to others to save the situation.

Photo: Magic Crate