Delaware is bullying parents. They just passed Senate Bill 234 making spanking of children by parents illegal. If I were a parent in Delaware, I’d be worried because the bill also states that if a parent causes physical harm or “pain” to a child, he/she can go to jail for a year. Yikes. Pain? Can we clarify, please? Don’t ask my grown kids what kind of pain I’ve inflicted on them over the years. My six-year-old daughter was jumping on the bed with her two-year-old brother and broke his leg while I was folding laundry nearby. Does that count?

What about Lara, the mother of my patient, eight-year-old Jack? Lara is a single mother and Jack has taken to back talking and swearing. “The only way he stops is by getting a firm swat on the butt,” she recently told me. Time outs, taking toys away, and grounding him don’t work. He’s extraordinarily stubborn. Should Lara go to jail for a year? Should I report her?

Not only does the government need to get out of parenting, but it also needs to begin to make some sort of sense.

Consider that Jack’s mother Lara could also go to jail if…