Ban Spanking in Massachuetts What??

I just read an article in my local paper about how state legistation(sp?) in Massachuetts is trying to ban corporal punishment (aka spanking) as illegal and if caught spanking or hitting your child under the age of 18 will be considered abuse and neglect and jail time will be considered! What the Fuck! When did spanking your child become such a bad issue, now I do give my son a quick wack on the butt if he does something really bad or after several time outs don't seem to be working, but considering it abuse is just down right stupid and taking away the rights of the parent to punish their child how they see fit.
I used to live in SC where corporal punishment is still allowed in the school, but the parent has to sign a form for approval, now this should be in effect in most schools I think since maybe the kids will behave more. I was spanked as a child and probably several people on here as well and it didn't screw me up at all. I'm 27 yrs old and still respect my parents and other people. Also as being a parent I don't think its wrong to spank your child if it keeps them in line and after several other punishments don't seem to work and if you are a parent of a young child you will agree that half the time, shoot most of the time, TIME OUTS DON'T ALWAYS WORK OR EVER AT ALL in case of the child and who he or she is. It seems more and more lately the government is taking away more parents rights. Am I not the only one who thinks this?

Older Seseme Street to Adult....What the hell!

I almost sat down and laughted myself to tears and so did my husband when we read The Post's article about the older Seseme Street episodes being too adult for the kids today. At first I was hoping it was all tongue in cheek, but after a while we thought maybe in this whole PC world that they were being serious. I find it amusing that something we watched as children is considered too adult for my children. I remember the whole pipe eating endings of Monsterpiece Theater and found them quite amusing as a child (it never has given me the idea that smoking is ok) of course if I remember correctly there were bubbles coming out of cookie monsters pipe also(but I haven't seen the old episodes in a long while). I personelly thing we coddle our younger generation too much, we try to expose our children to things through rose colored glasses way to much and I think it needs to come to a halt. I would rather my child watch the older episodes of Sesame Street, were snuffleupcous(sp?) was only seen by Big Bird and Oscar the Grouche was really a grouche then the prozac-induced over used Elmo Street show any day.

I actually let my child watch the old MGM cartoons, were violence was worse then in modern cartoons (which suprises me that they haven't been removed also) and Bugs Bunny smoked like a chimney. I mean you can't even find The Three Stooges on tv anymore b/c they have been removed b/c it is too violent for children, funny I thought they were hilarous as a child. I have old Curious George books where the Man in the Yellow Hat is smoking cigerettes, so are those going to be removed also? The Three Stooges was my favorite show growing up next to Ghostbusters (which was removed due to violent content), JEM, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Bright, and Transformers. Sorry to say I never smoked a day in my life and am about as violent as Mickey Mouse so saying that these books and shows are not right for our children and will make them want to smoke and be violent then our world has some serious problems. They need to bring back the cartoons and shows of our generation and let the children watch them. If they were good enought for us before the PC world took over it should be good enough still!

No "Ho Ho Ho"..Oh Hell NO!!!

I just got done reading a very interesting article on yahoo.com, I don't have time to actually read a newspaper, about how Santa Clause has been told to no longer say his classic catch phrase "Ho Ho Ho", but change it to "Ha Ha Ha"! Ok at first I thought maybe it was to change things up a bit until I got further into the article and come to find out it is because our world has gotten so PC that people are scared it will scare children and might upset women! OK hold the train for a second...upset women! Where do they get these ideas and where are the women who are making the complaints? Seriously if there are complaints out there by some women who are offended by a catch phrase that has been used for centuries by this beloved Christmas character, then they need their heads examined.

As for children being scared, that comes with being Santa Clause I remember it took me up until I was 9 yrs old to final sit in the big red man's lap, most of my pictures were of me standing 2 feet from the man. Its a right of passage as children to be scared of the Jolly Red Giant, but we get over it and move on, I don't remember being coodled by the world when things scared me, I was always told to chalk it up and deal. As a parent I'm the same way when it comes to Santa, if my son doesn't want to sit on his lap because he is scared then fine, but I'm not going to force him to change his ways that have been going on for centuries b/c he scares a couple of kids!

What has the world come to, Santa has to say "Ha Ha Ha" and supposbly needs to lose a few pounds according to another article. What is next the Easter Rabbit has to get a rabbi shot or Cupid can't use arrows to grant love since it will promote violence!

Why ban over the counter meds from children?

http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/infant-cough-cold-meds-focus-of-fda-hearing/124301.htm

Well another thing the government is taking away from us parents. The right to medicate our sick children without having to go to the doctor. As a mother myself I wonder why do they keep doing this to us, its like they enjoy letting parents suffer b/c a few families can't read the back of the bottle and give their kids the correct dose! I'm sorry but when my son has a slight cold and cought, I would rather give him over-the-counter cought medicine to help him through the night. Now yes I know that you should let their immune system fight off the virus/cold, but the medicine does let the immune system do that and helps the child be comfortable til then. I know you probably should take them to the doctor, but I'm sorry half the time the doctor tells you to get the available meds instead of writting out a prescription if your child isn't seriously sick. And if your child is sick they usually right out a cought syrup that has a highly addictive and dangerous drug called Codine. How is that safer for our children then the over the counter formulas?????!!!!!

Most of us parents are responisble enought to know how much to give a child and well we were given the same doses when we were kids and they didn't ban it back then so why now? What happens if our child is sick late at night(like cought and lowgrade fever), no doctors offices are open and going to the ER is just too expensive and a bunch of hassle what are we to do then?

I would seriously like the government and company officials, and many mothers here at work state the same thing, who placed this ban should come to our house when our kids sick and let them deal with our sick children without the children's tylenol and cough syrup. And see how they like it.

Now my rant is done now read and discuss if you want!