Where Do You Beat your Kids? (Wal Mart, Of Course)

HELLO GENTLE READERS,

I swear, Wal Mart must have crosses, garlic and silver bullets to keep the Department of Social Services at bay! I've never seen the beat and I've been in three counties.

Go there on any Saturday and you'll think you've been transported back to the Spanish Inquisition. Torquemada would be proud of many of these parents. I don't tell anybody how to raise their kids but, I was not a "spanker". I spanked my daughter one time in her entire life and I still feel guilty about it. She's now grown with a family of her own. I was spanked both at home and at school and swore I'd never spank a child of my own.

When do you intervene (and God knows intervention is often needed)? In a Wal Mart in Charlotte, NC, I saw a mother take a plastic Whiffle bat off the shelf and start whacking her little boy's bottom! He looked to be about five years old. When I gave her a sharp look, she waved the bat at me. I assure you it was not a greeting. At least she stopped "whiffling" the little boy! As long as Wal Mart's in business, Serial Killing will be a growth industry.

Hey Moms and Dads--Why not just burn the little ones at the stake? The burning stakes are in the Garden Center right next to the lighter fluid.

Tom Vickers