I spank you because I love you...

Ever have that moment when you realize that, despite all your well laid plans of NEVER doing what your parents did to you, you tend to still have a few of their quirks??? Those moments usually appear when it comes to my kids. My mom used to say things like, (and I have added the things I thought when she said them to me...) "Do you want a spanking?" (um... Yes please?) or "How many times do I have to tell you...?" (hmm.. maybe just a few more times so I get it right?)or "It hurts me to spank you more than it does you". (Yeh, right. Whatever). I have actually said those things my mother said,now as a parent-despite my oath and pledge never to do such a thing. I know parents who have completely opposite parenting skills than I do, that argue the fact that spanking a child is abuse. Plain and Simple. I do not share this view. I do feel, however, that you can get to the point of being abusive when you spank, especially when you spank in anger. In my quest for better parenting, I usually watch the people who have great kids, who's kids are college graduates, return missionaries, temple married, and living relatively happily. I look at families that sit through Sacrament Meeting and watch what they do to teach their children to be still. I befriend those women and try to learn from them how they managed to have succesful parenting. Not just surviving Motherhood. The one common factor I have found in almost all the situations was NEVER LET YOUR CHILD BE UNACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. Too many parents,these days, feel that their child/children are entitled to more. Better. Fancier. Bigger. They feel guilty if they cannot give them every dance lesson, piano lesson, sport, or toy available ever. And in return, the child has no responsiblities, or even consequenses to their actions. My mom calls this generation of new mom's and dad's the "Echo" generation... Echoing the era after the Depression, when they had been without for so long, they went overboard to give their children SO much to compensate. I am in constant prayer that the men that will marry my daughters are brought up with parents who taught them respect, hard work, self discipline and love. I pray that the girl who marries my son, will have a bit of "old world" taught to her, meaning she will support him and want to be a wife and a mother. That she will find joy in raising a strong, well-rounded family. So, my goal in educating, training, teaching, and loving my children, is to provide them with a well rounded dose of love and discipline, topped off with opportunities to learn self discipline and humbleness. It will be a never ending quest. Isn't it every mother's dream to have her children be perfect???