Spanking your kids is not child abuse, says syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette Jr..
"I have spanked my children, but what I do to my kids — five, seven and nine — in terms of punishment bears no resemblance at all to what I got as a kid from my father or what he got from his father," Navarrette said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"Every generation does learn. There are things that my parents did that I am not going to repeat with my own children.
"This notion that somehow if you spank a kid, swat them on the bottom, not even their bare bottom, but through their pants, that somehow amounts to child abuse — a single swat. That's nuts."
Navarrette's comments came amid the controversy surrounding Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who allegedly bloodied his 4-year-old son with a switch.
Navarrette says today's children do not respect their elders.
"Kids nowadays grow up with a sense of entitlement. They grow up disrespecting authority," he said.
"They don't respect their parents, which means that when they get out to society, they won't respect teachers, police officers, or anybody else. It's bad, it's a really terrible thing, and it's not good for our society."
Navarrette said there is a tendency for people to butt into how parents discipline their kids.
"You have a lot of meddling people out there who intend on raising other people's kids," he said.
"Then, all of a sudden it becomes about condescending, a morally superior tone that somehow they are better people than you and, oh my goodness, your kids are going to grow up to hate you. It really does get out of hand very quickly."
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