Spanking? Yes or no?

I hate the whole idea of corporal punishment, but that's exactly the low-foreheaded/cro-mag/19th century child discipline technique that I've employed.

Uly is a very strong willed child. I like that about him ... as long as it doesn't include hitting his infant sister, slapping his mom and other anti-social behavior. The problem is, these things happen a lot.

Anyway, I've found myself spanking him to try and get past these issues. The results are dubious. After I give him a warning he still goes ahead with the problem behavior. After that, I issue a time out. After the time out he acts up again and I spank. He finally relents, apologizes and stops, but the problem behavior is repeated later. Other methods do less.

Ideas?

Welcome Back

Well, hell.

You may recall that I have a new site - Gold and Lead - and that I announced last November that I was shutting this blog down and posting there. GL needs work, so I'm back.

I'm sitting here in my car in front of my house with my son Uly. He's asleep — he wouldn't go down at his normal bed time, so here we are.

A lot has happened since November. Briefly:

- We applied and were turned down for membership at Church of the Sojourners in SF. It was no ideological or personal conflict. It was a matter of space (theirs) and timing (ours).

- Our daughter Abby Delores was born Jan. 26. She's happy, healthy and growing.

- Uly is deep into the terrible twos.

- Our friend Whit died in prison on April 4.

So, that's my update. Expect more, and more real posts soon.