Mayim Bialik Explains Why Spanking Kids "Makes No Sense" in This Epic Video
Mayim Bialik came armed with six straight minutes of scientific facts when she made a YouTube video on why spanking your kids is a really bad idea.
The Big Bang Theory star explains that just because hitting your kid has been widely practiced for hundreds of years, it doesn't mean it's something that parents should keep doing.
She explained how spanking your kids really doesn't work, and while hitting your kid can be a tempting short-term solution on bad days, there are no positive results on children in the long run.
"Thanks to the pleasure principle, whenever any animal faces a negative aversive or negative stimulus, such as a smack, hit, or even a punch, the brain quickly learns to avoid the source of that pain in the future," says Bialik. "This tends to be very efficient. Once you hurt a child, they will seek to avoid having that pain again. So essentially hitting teaches avoidance, not obedience."
The founder of the online community Grok Nation also appeals to parents' sense of logic.
"You can't hit your spouse, you can't hit your student, you can't hit a stranger, you can't even hit your dog, yet we have laws protecting, defending, and justifying hitting a child. It makes no sense."
While Bialik admits that she's been "driven mad by her children at times," she has a very different approach to discipline.
"I set boundaries and enforce them consistently, and I remove my kids from situations where they're being destructive," she explains. "When my older son was 3, he was throwing his wooden trains dangerously close to his infant sister, so I threatened to take them away. On the next throw, I took all of his trains and put them in a basket on top of the refrigerator for three days. He whined everyday for three days, and when I finally gave them back to him, he didn't throw them again."
Her takeaway? There are literally no benefits to hitting your kids, so if you use spanking as a form of punishment, it's probably best to reconsider.