Hands Off! Don't Spank My Kids!

It's the time of year where family picnics and reunions are abundant. In most circumstances we go and have a blast. The kids love having countless cousins, aunts and uncles to play with and I love having at least a dozen other capable adults around to chase my kids. I am 28 weeks pregnant after all, and chasing is low down on my list of things to do.

Because of the holiday, our schedule included two separate family picnics this week. The first one went off without a hitch. The kids got their first taste of sparklers and we all had a great time! The second one was going great as well, until someone had to go and ruin everything.

My daughter, at just shy of two years old, is still a daily napper. Every day from one until three or four is snooze time for her. Given the special occasions, I was willing to let her stay up as long as her behavior dictated. That is, as soon as she started freaking out and being a cranky pain in the you-know-what I would know it was nap time. Right on schedule, the crankiness began a little after one. After an unpleasant something or other, she came over to me and gave me a little swat on the leg. This is a new thing she's been experimenting with, and we've been dealing with it by immediately placing her on time out and discussing why we don't hit.

But before I could even open my mouth to utter the words 'time out' a relative sitting within arm's reach hauled off and smacked her. From behind. Totally out of the blue. Now I don't want to get into a debate about spanking. I'll just say that I think most parents are capable of making the decision themselves, and that there may be situations where spanking might be an appropriate punishment.

That said, there was no way in hell this was one of those situations.

My daughter, naturally, began screaming. She had no idea what was going on, she was startled and probably hurting a little. I scooped her up and walked swiftly away from the scene, hoping to calm my little one just as much as I was hoping keep myself from smacking someone. I looked around for my husband, but he was off loading the car so I was without reinforcements. Luckily, he was back soon and I was able to hurry us out of there. But not before I got criticized for 'coddling' my kids by picking them up every time they cry.

On the way home I detailed what happened to my husband. We were both disappointed that I hadn't said anything, but at the moment I was so angry I might have gone a little off the deep end. Plus, this was my husband's family, and I wasn't really sure how to react. We agreed that if anything like that ever happens again it would be well within our rights to make our feelings known.

As I tried to fall asleep last night, a million replies ran through my head, from perfectly reasonable ones to perfectly nasty ones. I'm really hoping I won't have an occasion to use them, but if the situation arises at least I'll be prepared!

This is an original post to the Philly Moms Blog. You can find Amy Jo over at her personal blog The Cheese Party. Consider this your official invitation!