At what age does a child become too old to spank?

In certain religious circles the idea is put forth that part of the reason the family has broken down is because of the problem of gender roles.  I have heard many people describe how a man is the head of the home.  They will mention scripture to support this idea.  They will mention that a woman is supposed to be submissive in the home.  They will tell us that part of the breakdown of the family revolves around getting those gender roles out of place.  They will mention the feminist movement as a factor in destroying the home.

Is the role of a woman in the home a role of submission?

One of the ideas that is commonly expressed in my church is that there is a breakdown of society.  The blame for this breakdown is sometimes given to the breakdown of the family.  There are those that would point to the idea that families are not what they used to be.  They are unable to spend time with each other because they have all these activities that are programmed into their schedule.  In addition, the thought is that because of divorce families do not have the same stability as they once had.  I want to take some time to look at the family in a few post here.  But I would like to first look at the current status of the family.

Is the status of the family broken down as compared to 50 years ago?

I was talking with a friend a few years back about movies.  He was from Europe.  He mentioned that Americans make a bigger deal out of nudity in movies than they do over in Europe.  He mentioned that if a person is nude in a movie, we automatically give that movie a rating of R.  In fact, in my last post someone mentioned the same issue in the comment section.  He felt that while Americans don’t like nudity in our movies, we will tolerate violence.  He thought this was odd.

Someone in my last post said that nudity had a lot to do with whether it was a boy seeing it or not.  Since most nudity in movies is woman, a different standard can be held to what a girl will watch.

I think my friend from Europe was right.  When I am thinking of what my son can watch, nudity and language are a big factor.  So I am more likely to let him watch a violent show as long as it doesn’t have a lot of cursing in it.

When allowing a child to see a movie, what content is important in whether they watch the movie or not?

I think I may be the only person in America that actually follows the movie ratings.  My oldest is 12 and he wants to watch PG-13 movies.  I told him he is not 13 yet.  I also told him when he is 13 he is not going to see every PG-13 movie.  In fact, I doubt I will let him see very many at all.

I let him watch Spiderman because it wasn’t that bad.  It was rated PG-13.  I let my younger son watch it too even though he was I think only 7 at the time.  I can’t believe what they put in movies these days.  I did let my oldest watch the “Passion” also.  He was 9-10 at the time. 

All of his friends from school are watching PG-13 and Rated R material.  When I was younger my parents didn’t let us watch very much of anything.  I went to a friend’s house and watched a few movies that were Rated R.  But by in large because of their rule I had less exposure to it.  But I think standards have changed so much.

What is the appropriate age for a child to begin watching PG-13 and Rated R material?

I am going to try another question from the game Scruples.  I will do my best to recreate the hypothetical.  “You visit the house of one of your best friends.  You find a video from their last vacation.  They are having fun at a nude beach and have no clothes on.”

Do you watch the video?

If you died tonight, where would you go?

A few schools have recently banned xanga use by their students.  The first school to get attention for doing this was a Catholic school.  The reason this became an issue was the school was not only stopping the students from using xanga at school, they were stopping them from using them at home.  The students faced suspension if they were found to have a xanga site.

Should a school ban students from using xanga in the privacy of their own home?

My son mentioned to me the desire to have a blog.  He asked about mine.  I didn’t even know he knew about mine.  He asked, “You know that thing that you ask question on?”  He asked, “When can I have one?”  I told him never.  He is 12 and so he is getting to the age where this may come up. We have not allowed him to use the internet.  He has admitted that he has gotten online at school. 

I believe you have to be 13 to be on xanga according to xanga rules.  I would never let him have a xanga at 13.  It just appears to me there is too much for him to see on here.

At what age would you allow a child to have a xanga site?

I spend about 2 hours a day on xanga.  I followed a certain pattern for a long time.  I would spend 5-10 minutes a day posting.  Then I would spend two hours commenting.  Then a while back I went to posting multiple times a day.  My pattern shifted at that point.  I then wrote about 3-4 post in the morning on word.  I find I can write better in the morning.  I get to work at about 7 a.m.  I am in the office way before anyone else.  I spend about 30 minutes writing 3-4 post. 

I then normally get started on my work day.  Then during the day I copy my post on xanga and submit them.  I actually now spend an hour and a half commenting a day.  I break it up into 3 times a day commenting for 30 minutes.  I have times when I don’t have time to comment as much.  I went 4 days without commenting a few weeks ago. 

Sometimes people ask if I read all my comments.  I read all my comments.  I can read 150 comments in 5 minutes.  It doesn’t take me much time to read through them.

I have noticed the tendency of some to spend a lot of time on xanga.  They will come back to their site multiple times during the day.  I am convinced that some will actually visit their own site 40-50 times a day and just check it.

Add up the time you spend on posting and the amount of time you spend checking your site and other sites.

On average, how much time do you spend on xanga a day?