It's not exactly a stunning revelation to say that a lot of people really don't like being told what to do.
And while this often true of adults, many parents will find that it's an even bigger reality when it comes to children.
To get around this fact, my mom's clever trick was to always give me a choice when I didn't want to do something. In such cases, I could either choose whatever I needed to do that day or something else that was even more arduous and undesirable. The game was rigged from the start, of course, but it became easier to grudgingly accept my responsibility if it seemed like the best possible option.
But one interesting tendency that arises whenever some new research comes out that demonstrates the negative effects of spanking is that if there's one thing people really hate, it's when someone tells them how to tell someone else what to do.
And yet, that's what I'm nonetheless compelled to do because the more we learn, the clearer it is that an end to spanking is long overdue.