everyday living, i agree it's necessary to give children guidance, even those who are incapable off understanding why they need to behave a certain way, and occasionaly coroporal punishment is necessary, but with reason...otherwise all children learn is that a parent can hurt them...and never understand why they've been beaten, i was spanked as a child to...i just learned how to be more careful about getting caught.

smacking a child because they don't want to go to church?

She was angry because of that, not because he was doing the drugs, unaware he was sneaking out, and lord knows what else he was doing...she was probably oblvious to that fact, which suggests there's more going on with that kid than just not going to church. She'd have been one of those mom's on maury povich crying their children don't respect them...no matter how much they try to make them behave...children respect those who show them some respect.

my mom tried that technique to force me into going to church, and i went,, until i was old enough to not to and then ...i ended up on the verge of worshipping satan, giving my soul away to the highest bidder, attempting to master various magical arts, hating anything that suggested religion, but unable to find anything that would satisfy me for long.

exposing your children to various religions can be a good thing, and if she was a devout christian, it would be an example she'd be living by, i ask mia every sunday if she wants to go to church with me, she says no...i let it go, but still ask her, sometimes she does come with me, i answer her questions about Gd, the devil and even witchcraft...not condemning any of it, but letting her know i choose to beleive in Gd, she get's her exposure.

Once i was given a choice, the various options offered, i made a choice, children should be allowed some choices, or how will they ever learn to make their own if they are programmed like little robots to obey without question?

now because the mother responded to the wrong things, rather than working on the important things, her son's dead and she still has no one to go to church with, and the poor child is burning in hell...all because the mother chose violence over understanding trying to force her child into church rather than realizing he had a lot more serious issues going on in his life.

they did portray that aspect of inproperly correcting a child for the wrong thing...the child did sneak out and something bad did happen.

spank a child for the right reasons, not because they're flexing out their own reasoning, besides, it's hard for a mother to wrestle down a 50 pound child, a kid sneaking out suggests he was an older child, over 50 pounds...at some point there'd have been nothing she could do to correct him, and he'd end up hating her, like my brother openly tells my mother he hates her, and yes...he's strong enough and has hit her back. that's a whole different can of worms opening, because she was a divorced mother that incorrectly punished her children and tried to forcer her views an opinions on them, unable to respect or any care to understand their side of the situation.

parents are one of the most important things in a child's life, sadly too many fail to realize how much they really affect their children, underestimating their intelligence...even mia with her autism understands things that most would not expect her to, fortunately there are those who do realize that.