MARY MORGAN

New York, Nov. 8, 2011

The writer is Dr. Spock’s widow.





To the Editor:

If parents brutalize and murder their children in the name of discipline, no matter how they justify it, we need increased oversight by child protection services — and criminal charges against parents when warranted.

We should be calling for increased provision of parent services and social marketing for parent resources in general. Raising children is the most difficult job there is, too often undertaken without training, support or respite.

Perhaps the pastor Michael Pearl should consider the results of a long-term study reported recently in the journal Child Development that found that toddlers who are persistently aggressive, defiant and “explosive” were influenced by “negative parenting” as early as infancy.

EVE SULLIVAN

Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 7, 2011

The writer is the founder of Parents Forum, a nonprofit that provides workshops on parenting and emotional awareness.





To the Editor:

As a former hot-line counselor for the Parental Stress Hot Line, a statewide, 24-hour anonymous hot line for parents in Massachusetts, I am always deeply saddened when I read of parents believing that corporal punishment is necessary to discipline children.

In fact, research has demonstrated consistently that nonviolent means of discipline are far more effective and have no negative consequences on the child at all, whereas corporal punishment has many negative consequences, ranging from the likelihood of increased aggression, hostility and depression in children to an increased use of violence as a solution to interpersonal disputes in adults.

And as far as using the Bible to justify child-rearing practices, the Bible also advocates slavery in many of its passages. Not everything in the Bible need be taken as the standard for modern enlightened 21st-century civilization.