Every few months Parents as Teachers has some sort of info night. There is a speaker, and childcare is provided. I've never gone before because I wouldn't leave Emma with a stranger, but last night they had one and I decided to go. I was really feeling the need for a break, and if I had to sit there and listen to someone spout off her views on discipline (last night's topic) to get one, so be it. Emma apparently had fun in the child care, but I was really disappointed in the talk. The lady had a lot of good points, but also talked about spanking and the times when she thinks it is appropriate. She made sure to tell us that it should hurt the child, and that the smacks should be hard. Um, what????? Spanking is never appropriate. Ever. I almost got up and walked out, but I wanted to stay until the end and ask her some questions. At one point, she was musing why children bite, spit, and hit, because, she said, "We, as parents, don't teach them to do those things." Sorry, but hitting your child is doing nothing other than teaching them to hit. She also made the point that the things that are always unacceptable for any child to do is hurt himself or herself, hurt someone else, or destroy property. So...how does hurting your child show him or her that hurting others is unacceptable? It doesn't. I was going to ask these questions afterwards, but there wasn't an opportunity for questions. Grrr. I was really, really annoyed that PAT invited this speaker and I considered quitting the program altogether. Fast forward to today - we had a PAT appointment with our educator this morning. She asked me what I thought of the speaker, and I told her all those things and that I basically thought it was a bunch of crap. She said they had no idea she was going to say those things, and that they are putting out a statement in the next newsletter apologizing for that, and explaining that PAT doesn't advocate spanking, ever. After hearing that, I feel much better about the whole thing. I am still sad, however, that there are people like this woman out there who think that there is nothing wrong with hitting babies and children.

Tonight I get to go to my AP group's Mom's Night Out! Steve is going to drag himself away from work at 6:00 so I can go, and I am so looking forward to it!