Animal defense movements emerged in England in the XIX century and those of child protection later. I repeat, the children were the last ones who got into the car of the rights, ethics and piety of adults.
More than 150 years later here we continue: violence against children has apparently disappeared from society and schools (if someone touches your child, we parents sue) but it has settled comfortably inside homes .
The Vicky Bernadet Foundation has publicly denounced figures that are difficult to digest: a minimum of 20% of the population suffers Childhood abuse
This unfortunate and extreme situation is just the tip of the iceberg, because the rest of the children are not raised by parents who follow Gandhi. More than 50% of adults still believe that it is necessary to hit a child to educate him and to impose discipline.
AdvertisingFortunately, although many parents remain illiterate emotional, paste is already crime in Spain. In this case, the law has gone ahead and now it is time to change the mentality. 3 years ago Lola already showed us a campaign of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Save the Children organization called Corregir is not hitting whose goal was: raising awareness against physical punishment of children in the family. Today, it is still just as current.
¿What is a physical punishment?? They are the slaps, the whips, blows to the head, the pulls of hair and ears, the pinches and other corporal aggressions, as well as the humiliation that they entail. All this constitutes a violation of the child's right to his physical integrity and of course emotional.
Do you remember the story of the value of the example? If I shake or shriek at my son because he has done something wrong (in my opinion), the message I give him is one of the predominant force over the word, lack of serenity and love.
He will reproduce this behavior with his peers as this video shows us so coldly. Or do we believe that violence in the classroom has come out of nowhere?
For Save the children, experts in the field, the ALTERNATIVES TO PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT They are: authority and love. These are his literal recommendations:
- To impose coherent norms and limits to the children, to make them respect and punish them with firmness and clarity when they break the norm, but without hitting them or humiliating them.
- Educate children in rights and responsibilities, promoting their autonomy.
- Share enough time and quality with our sons and daughters.
- Demonstrate affection (hug, kiss our children) and say it, never take it for granted ("He knows I love him"), regardless of the fact that sometimes they do things wrong and make mistakes.
- Do not affect our children emotionally or let us blackmail them.
- Reward our sons and daughters not only with things but with timeshare and with our recognition.
- Teach ask for forgiveness asking us when we are wrong.
Some of these recommendations may be questionable, but then the debate is on another level: education and no longer violence.
It is true that raising children is an extremely difficult and hard task on many occasions, and that loneliness, exhaustion and lack of patience make us lose our papers in the face of the least or greatest mischief of our children. But that's what our maturity is for: to put order where there is chaos.
Isn't it said that children help us to be better people? If we try, we all win.
