Kate Gosselin Hits Kids, Says Former Staffer (”Jon & Kate” Child Abuse Claims)

June 17th, 2009 by Castina

She’s been known to be overbearing and more than a bit snippy with her allegedly adulterous husband, Jon, but does Kate Gosselin also turn her rage in on her own children?

At least one former Gosselin Family staffer says “absolutely.”

A one-time employee of Jon and Kate Gosselin, troubled stars of the TLC reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8, claims the outspoken mama of multiples is a “shortfused” tyrant who routinely violently disciplines her eight children when the cameras aren’t rolling.

In the June 22 issue of The National Enquirer, the ex-staffer, who worked for the Gosselins for more than a year before recently resigning, claims they have witnessed Kate using corporal punishment on the couple’s 8-year-old twins and 5-year-old sextuplets.

“When one of the boys closed a door on another one once, Kate got in their faces and yelled, ‘You tell me the truth about what happened!” the insider says, recalling one incident where Gosselin allegedly battered her children.

“The children just stood there terrified. Then she dragged one of the boys into the bathroom and spanked him five or six times with a large plastic spoon.”

The staffer adds, “You could hear Kate forcefully whacking the child and the child screaming at the top of his lungs. People told me it happened more than once, but it was off-camera because Kate didn’t want it in the show.”

Thoughts on this? Are any of you anti-spanking?

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40 Responses to “Kate Gosselin Hits Kids, Says Former Staffer (”Jon & Kate” Child Abuse Claims)”

On June 18th 2009, J.D wrote:

It’s no wonder he’s cheating on her, she’s an abusive bitch!! i got beat by both my parents, so I don’t have any pity on her.
On June 18th 2009, Bailey wrote:

PLEASE!!! KATE SWATTED THE CHILD ON HER BUT!!! THAT IS NOT ABUSE!!
KATE DOES NOT BEAT HER CHILDREN. YOU PEOPLE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO GET IN THE PRESS!!
On June 18th 2009, karen wrote:

This woman has too short a fuse.
On June 18th 2009, Jon wrote:

The pity of this story is the trivializing of the act of hitting this child, which is still so predominantly viewed by the public as harmless and is experienced so briefly as to be even considered a potentially harsh harmful punishment with lasting effects. For the vast majority of laypersons a parent authority figure is assumed to be only good and altruistic in their role as a “loving” parent that it is unconscionable to think otherwise. So there is this common reaction in knee jerk fashion to defend such parents who spank or those who where spanked themselves as children so they instead rush to vilify the press for bringing any scrutiny to public light about such a “common” “traditionally ageless” child punishment so culturally engrain in U.S. parenting culture. It is insulting to most pro-spanking parents to have this common parent tactic using temporary pain infliction to a child for punishment to be discerned as being potentially more sinister and harmful. Any scrutiny is viewed suspiciously as being “soft” on child discipline if spanking isn’t used. And being a parent of children is almost synonymous with the freedom and a sense of primal and legal responsibility for their welfare. As such parents feel entitled to have absolute power in an almost ownership like fashion over the childhood lives of their children. It is a great insult to be told by any authority how a parent should or should not parent a child, just ask Kate Gosselin!

I’m one of many, though admittedly still a minority, of vocal objecting adults, who were spanked as a child by frequent semi-nude, in-the- bedroom or living room, punishments which involved a methodic interrogation always resulting in a forced confession which then resulted in being ritually stripped, sexually exposed, and hand spank by their mother. This method of punishment has become so well modeled and revered by generations of psychosexually ignorant parents yet I experienced it as emotionally traumatizing. As explained by most respected psychotherapists that deal in trauma and sexual fetishes this overwhelming trauma can put into psychological action an unconscious mental defense mechanism that can stir up a confusing prepubitorial sexualization of the punishment, which subsequently produce an INVOLUNTARIY sexual sadomasochistic fetish with spanking punishment experiences. While some like myself have been traumatized by this commonly denied psychosexual transgression, the reality is it remains masked while being largely denied and ignored as a very MILD emotionally harmless child punishment by most parents. I saw clearly my mother’s attempt to hide her own very mild and controlled sexually sadistic pleasure, falsifying her facial expressions while watching and orchestrating my body into proper position for her punishment while making certain to initiate me deliberately with a deep sense of precise shame for punitive effect. This was verbally gas lighted to me while she compassionately spoke of a reluctance to spank me but would always finally be resolved in a motherly dutiful expression of mixed love and anger that it was necessary as it was the ONLY means to teach and learn in this particular instance or wrong doing. It was explained that it was about to be done out of some spiritual and moral duty to correct misbehavior. Parents who discount my account as an exaggeration or fabrication as an overly sensitive emotional adult might be discounting their own psychological damage and/or are measuring the emotional pain they experienced as a child from spanking through the “lens” of an adult mind that believes they have emotionally survived unharmed mentally. Independent adults with mature reasoning abilities have the advantage to emotionally process feelings about being punished much better with less sense of threat or abandonment than that of a dependent parentally attached undeveloped child’s. And adults have the advantage of feeling safe and secure in the knowledge that it’s criminal for anyone to hit THEM for punishment. Many adults may well live in denial of their own childhood punishment psychological scars themselves protected by their own defense mechanisms, such as memory amnesia, or dissociating fetishes and/or they may be fortunate to have been born with less sensitive emotional temperaments to begin with and as such would be less vulnerable to psychological trauma and potentially damaging mental dissociations from corporal punishment.

In therapy I have recalled what I had never realized about my mother, she had been unconscious of her own internal emotional pleasure and I sense some taboo sexual pleasure also in doing this to me. Rather than just fronting a dissatisfied parental display of culturally accepted annoyance and anger like now famous mom Kate did, my mother for spiritual and moral motivations was oh so careful to verbally hide what her own body betrayed of her to me. Many parents with such sadomasochistic fetishes have little or no moral guilt feelings as is described in many accounts on social cyber blogs where corporal punishment is discussed between mutually supportive pro-spanking advocates. And many live in complete denial of their own sadistic feelings cleanly compartmentalizing their reaction and feelings while honestly believing that when they spank a child it’s completely different than those they might experience in their bedrooms with a willing sexual partner. Parents with a spanking fetish usually swear in solemn oath that the two acts are as completely different as are oil and water while in actuality one is a futile self attempt to replay out unresolved trauma using a sexual solution to anesthetize the buried latent emotional pain from their earlier punishments, regardless of whether it came from a direct experience, unremembered but earlier toddler spanking, or an indirect exposure or threat of being spanked or hearing or seeing one given.

As I recall the horror my own mother’s version of “a common spanking” which I’ve previously described here it’s obvious in the response to this story that many parents who approve of spanking refuse to be honest, not wanting to admit they commonly use a more psychologically destructive method of spanking with greater use of deliberate potentially dangerous shaming of the child’s body including their sexual organs, some ignorant, some not so ignorant of it. Many use an object or implement to spank with so there is a much higher level of pain infliction. This is all legal when spanking a minor since most U.S. laws only prohibit permanent physical marking of a child from a spanking. Courts and laws do not consider any boundaries about psychological damage caused by child spanking. As a social group many pro-spanking parents administer a more severe spanking but wish to be publicly perceived and classified as a “Kate Gosselin” mother or “Jon Gosselin” father parent who are idolized here since they model a more general glamorized, benign cultural, moral, and legal IMAGE void of any sexual context or innuendo by virtue of being the child’s parent. They would prefer to hide their more serious infliction of pain and shame from the public about how they really punish their children. The quintessential loving parent image described and photographed here can easily be defended as non-abusive, non sexual, and extremely “quick and very brief”! Described and shown as such here a spanking given in this manner it’s no wonder it’s considered acceptable and easily overlooked and forgotten given this context where a parent makes a SPONTANEOUS decision to immediately administer an on the spot mild hand-to-a-clothed bottom couple of painful swats. This visual and mental image is used to misrepresent and pass as the most common and general method of spanking a child! Oh how emotionally sanitized and morally “pure” and “wholesome this image is to a deliberately duped public. Lost in the shadows of real common everyday child home life are multitudes of more severe spankings of unimaginable variation like the one’s I became traumatized by that are cruel and harmful. And in many of these homes there are parents who hold no guilt for their own private unchallenged pleasant conquering feelings of a sadistic power rush, addicted to them, as they feel gratified in their ultimate control over their child’s behavior by using shame and pain. Don’t be deceived, there are other mothers and fathers who in those moments when they decide to spank THEIR child who are hiding even MILD suppressed facial expressions and smiles that would betray their private amusement in seeing the fear and helplessness in their child’s eyes that darkly crosses any moral sense of motivation to inflict such psychological pain out on the belief that this method is so far MORE superior to any other that they MUST use it to teach and discipline THEIR innocent still learning and making mistakes child. The lovely idolized parent spanking a child found here is a classic example of pure deception for the erroneous benefit of the never-spanked as-a-child adult public who were never traumatized, or if they were, never have come to a realization that they were. The outcries here are to deflect any criticism of spankings having ANY harmful effects as seemingly benevolently showcased here so it can quietly, privately, and secretly remain our nations greatest form of culturally popular generational cycled insidious abuse by previously abused parents many of whom are convinced THEIR own sexual fetish is genetic and was inherited by their parents. HUMM? Sounds vaguely familiar doesn’t it?

Human child behavioral sciences have with research now concluded that this once mythical “sexual risk” of a fetish is still largely promulgated by the conservative authoritative old school spanking parenting style and is a real child hazard! There exists a vast parenting public, some fetish afflicted, some not, who choose yet to live in denial and remain enamored by the power of using deliberate shame and the force of pain to subdue misbehaving children. Some children are more easily emotionally overwhelmed when experiencing this form of punishment. If so they then may involuntarily convert this trauma experience to a sexualization of the physical and emotional elements of the spanking, in a subconscious fashion, in primal fashion need for self preservation, for emotional survival, only to later live on with the scar and burden of a robbed sense of sexuality. I’m told in a brief bio about Kate Gossiping that she is a registered nurse, mother, and parent. By virtue of those most culturally valued titles she is excused, beyond scrutiny, to be free of suspect for any potentially harm to her children. Will the lack of any perceived deliberate shaming or sense of forced nudity or punishment ritual spare her daughter psychological damage? Only Kate’s daughter later in life will come to know that answer. Whether done out of a careless ignorance, conscious or unconscious, such spanking punishments grossly potentially harm innocent children by inflicting much more interruption and complications to their lives then any childhood original offense merited or deserved as punishment. In adult terms it would be like receiving a ten-year prison sentence for getting a speeding ticket.

Only late in life has therapy helped me uncover long ago past buried posttraumatic stress disorder flashbacks and reduced addictive spanking sexual fetish desires and deep rage and resentments for what my mother did to me back in childhood. Such destructive negative emotions unbeknownst to me laid hidden beneath a lifelong sexual fetish addiction which an unbelieving mistrusting public of human behavioral sciences largely wishes to keep denying for their own taboos and fears regarding children, their own sexuality, and that of a developing child’s as it relates to the context of a parent to administer a spanking as a form of child corporal punishment.
On June 18th 2009, Midget wrote:

um….my generation grew up knowing what a wooden spoon and the belt were…..And guess what we all screamed at the top of our lungs then too…but it was more for the fact we are in trouble than anything. It’s not like she punched them in the face, burned them with a cigarette or broke their bones…spanking your kids works…and sometimes they only way to get through especially with 8 of them going against you….I am sorry but nothing described above is corporal punishment…the kids do more harmful things to each other than what was described above.
On June 19th 2009, Dee K. wrote:

Wooden spoons are quite effective. My 35 yr. old still laughs about being chased with the “dreaded spoon”. He’s was the best behaved kid of them all! You anti-spanking folks are part of the larger problem in our public school system.
On June 19th 2009, kwebb wrote:

So Kate spanked Leah?? Anyone who has watched the TV show knows that Leah can be a brat at times.

And swatting a misbehaving child on the butt is not “abuse”, it is “attitude adjustment”!!

Wooden spoon? I only used Mr. Hand on my kids and I am from the generation who knew Mr. Belt very well. My opinion: if you are going to use corporal punishment, it should only be used for really bad behavior and you should only give a swat or two, no hitting with a belt, spoon or any other object. And if you are getting a sore hand then you know that A) corporal punishment is not effective discipline or B) you need to control your temper and stop overreacting to the normal things that kids will do (like doing things that they know will piss mom off). Mom is supposed to be the adult and not over react.
On June 19th 2009, kwebb wrote:

And the “former employee” who is claiming that Kate beats her children sounds like the typical disgruntled former employee. Anything for a little media attention.
“Former employee” + National Enquirer
Sure, I really believe that story!!!
On June 19th 2009, Mrs. Rogers wrote:

I absolutely agree with Midget and Dee..

“Spanking your kid DOES work”…and more often than not the kids get a bigger beating from each other. I also believe Dee is on target…it IS the anti spanking parents that create big problems in our public school system. Their kids are raised without ANY type of tangible dicipline at all…..which creates out of control brats.

I don’t see any corporate punshment going on in that picture…….give it a rest.
On June 19th 2009, mom_of_3 wrote:

I agree with the other’s who said spanking your kids does work! There is a difference in spanking and beating..In this instance it was a swat! People should try disciplining their children instead of letting them run wild.. Why do you think there is so much crime done by youngsters (teens & young adults), because people dont discipline their children and then want to gripe because people spank their kids to make them become respectible people..Get a life and get off her back, and unless there is proof she has beat any of them you should keep your mouths shut because other wise it is hear say/ rumors. Maybe a pissed ex employee trying to get back at her.
On June 19th 2009, John Wong wrote:

My wife & I have watched the show for sometime and applaud anyone raising a large family.
That said, it is easy to see how the marriage has changed. Who is more assertive & controlling, Kate. Who is more relaxed & quietly getting things done, Jon. Watch the shows, when Kate asks/tells Jon to do something, is it more important to Kate that it just gets done or does it have to done her way. As a professional, if you’re going to be that demanding of staff, you have to be equally appreciative of their efforts & accomplishments. Oh, and your husband is NOT your staff. It would be interesting to see Jon talk to Kate, the way Kate talks to Jon. Just take an old show & reverse the roles, hmmm.
Did Jon make some poor decisions, on who & when he hangs out with, maybe. Tell him how you feel, ask him not to do it again. If it bothers Jon that Kate is always with her bodyguard, HEY KATE you could easily, easily ask/demand a different bodyguard, you’re the star, you think you won’t get it? Or do you like it the way it is, hmmm.
They need to talk to a third party without TLC around, about the bad decisions they both have made and failed to make. Good luck, do whats right, you have great kids.
On June 19th 2009, Doobers wrote:

Spare the rod, spoil the child.
On June 19th 2009, speakingmymind wrote:

I too think that spanking DOES work. I think one of the problems our youth have today is that they have no fear. no fear of authorities, no fear of consequences. In my day I too knew what the wooden spoon was for and felt it at times. I will say this I didn’t feeel it much because I had fear of my parent using it on me. What I have read does not sound like child abuse to me. I am also a Social Worker that works with abused and neglected children and again I say I don’t see where this was abuse.
On June 19th 2009, katie wrote:

i know for a fact that she would never beat her children. wipping a kid is not abuse its punishment and all kids need punishments if they do the wrong thing i can understand you all call it abuse if she was beating the kids if they werent doin anything wrong. all you all want to do is try to say bad stuff about her. she is kinda stingy but she is kind inside and its jons fault their divorsing i thought he was a better man but aparently i and others thought wrong! kate is like one of the best moms and she like anyone else makes mistakes! so i hope and pray they dont get a divorse but i think they will.jon made a big mistake and if they get a divorse the kids will have to go each parents house and itll be hard for one parent to take care of eight kids.
On June 19th 2009, Rick Garner wrote:

While Jon & Kate are making some “life changing decisions,” are you helping or hurting them and their children? Better yet, what are you doing for your own marriage? Refocus the chatter to praying for this family, their healing, and find resources and tools to help strengthen your marriage.

JonandKatePrayers.com
On June 19th 2009, anna wrote:

I watched the shows and I think Kate and Jon are great parents, they are both educated people and I think they have plenty of patience and for Kate to lose it now and then is human considering what they are both going through. I have 3 of my own and I can’t imagine having 8 can you?
On June 19th 2009, Shannon wrote:

Wow Jon, you feel better now? That was quite a diatribe. Your whole life story there. Is this about you or the Gosselin kids? You should probably get back into counseling… quickly!
On June 19th 2009, SVP wrote:

I think people should just leave the lady alone! We don’t know the truth all we hear is gossip! I really feel sorry for her and all that she is going through. There is nothing wrong with disciplining your own children especially when they are young. If you wait to teach them when they are older it’s too late.
On June 20th 2009, m randick wrote:

It is disappointing how the majority of the population runs to the defense of this selfish and troubled woman, Kate. We would all be doing her a favor if viewership ceased, the show was cancelled and the family could get back to a less public place. The Gosslyns now have more money then necessary to sustain a high level lifestyle and we would help to take the children off the path of destruction they are traveling. I see nothing but pain, drugs and unnatural acts in search of public approval for these child stars. Shame on you Jon & Kate.
On June 20th 2009, Butch Gonzales wrote:

Corporal punishment berates and harms kids emotionally for the most part. I am a postgraduate working with professors doing research about violent and aggressive behavior in adults resulting from a tumultuous childhood at Stanford in Palo Alto. I too was spanked and beaten as a child. I suffer from bipolar disorder, not as a result, but as a symptom of both physical and sexual abuse.
On June 20th 2009, Karen wrote:

Spanking/disciplining is one thing, IF it is not done while the parent is doing it out of anger or frustration, which I think this bitch has done! The child was blowing a whistle, well who gave the child a whistle? IF the bitch would get off the phone, she wouldn’t have to abuse her kids! You reap what you sow bitch! I have no sympathy for HatieKatie, I hope she goes straight to hell!
On June 20th 2009, Lynn wrote:

I do believe that spanking is effective for major offenses (lying, deliberate disobedience, etc). However I do think that in this instance – leah playing outside too loudly – it was a bit over the top. The kid was outside blowing a whistle, Kate could’ve just moved farther away with her ever attached phone or taken the whistle away, instead of going off and smacking her in obvious anger. Punishments should be given calmly not in anger.
On June 24th 2009, Anna wrote:

Yawn. So what if she spanks her kids. She’s not beating them to death. Pah-lease. If you don’t give them a spanking every now and then, they’ll walk all over you.
On June 24th 2009, bfg wrote:

You can tell by watching the show that the kids are afraid of her. Why is that? Why do they flinch when she gets loud & in their faces? Spanking is okay for certain situations, but if you’re too angry, it can get out of hand and you can hurt rather than help your child.
On June 25th 2009, sarah wrote:

I think kate is overacting on the kids about the situation that is going on with her and jon. kate should not being taking her anger out on the kids. the kids have done nothing wrong. she can talk to them of there bad behavior but she dose not need to hit her children on the butt. if she keeps doing this to the kids the kids are not going to want to be near her . hey they already are when she walks near them they flint and try to run but she gets them and decidees to hit them on the butt. this is anot needed with 5 year old kids talk to them nicely and they will understand
On June 26th 2009, katie wrote:

why would she take her anger out on her chlidren also i thik there stupid because they could of just quit the show and after a few days the “p” people would leave them alone and life would be soooooo much easier and they wouldn’t have to seperate
On June 26th 2009, Natalie wrote:

Learn self control, proper parenting skills and you will never need to spank a child, Talk about mis-messages to your children. Don’t hit, but it’s ok for mommy and daddy to hit. Children are not your property, they are members of society. The jails are full of adults who don’t have secure attachments to their children. It is a parents job to be able to effectively communicate with their child(ren). Hitting is wrong…period! My 6 year old son is VERY WELL behaved and has never been spanked in his life. I can count the number of temper tantrums on one hand and we have rarely used time outs. Parenting is not easy, but it is important for all of us to do it well and properly. Parents that hit are sending the wrong message and it does effect their well being. What’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander. Just because your parents weren’t able to manage, doesn’t mean your children should suffer.
On June 28th 2009, whatifthiswasyou wrote:

Yes Kate is a control freak, but Jon also liked to act and be treated as if he was the 9th child… i don’t believe Kate takes her anger out on her kids.. if some of those kids where mine I would spank them too. I have children of my own and at the end if it comes down to them needing a spank I give it to them. I doubt those children suffer or any more then yours or mine. It is a shame they put there family on display, but we are all as guilty watching.
On June 29th 2009, jennifer wrote:

It’s a double edged sword. If you don’t spank your kids they’ll be brats, but if you do they’ll grow up thinking that that’s how you deal with people who make you mad. Hit them and they’ll stop. It worked on you, right? My Mom would spank me when I was little which led to her slapping me in the face starting when I was 8. Each time she would say she had to. I started slapping other children in the face and saying I had to. It infuriated me how it was OK for me to be slapped but not anyone else. Around age 12 I started saying I never wanted to be a Mom. I’m 38 now and I still don’t. So, the corporal punishment worked, I behaved. But I never had grandchildren because of it. They got slapped right out of me.
On June 30th 2009, Katelin wrote:

i do agree that spanking is ok. when i was a kid my mom was told by a police officer she could beat the shit out of me as long as it was open fist. now im not going to follow my mothers example. i am an expecting mother as of right now. and if my daughter is misbehaving knowing what is expected of her she will get a swift swat to the butt at the age of 5 she should know. crying or not. discipline is discipline like it or hate it. it is effective after “enough!, stop please! and quiet mommy’s on the phone” are ignored. what else can u do? when nothing gets through to them? shock collars? mothers that simply do not use the staff on her child hates her child.
On June 30th 2009, Katelin wrote:

o and she wasnt just playing Kate was on the phone and she was blowing a whistle. im sure u would have been upset after asking her to stop and she persisted. she tested Kate and got what she was asking for. Kate is a struggling parent. Jon is no help he whines, bitches and moans when something is asked of him. i know if my husband ever acted like that it would get very tiring and on my nerves. of course id become a fire breathing dragon. she has 8 kids why does she need another? especially one that can take care of himself perfectly. hes a lazy husband that thinks hes big boy enough to cheat on her but not take care of his duties at home? pshhh. Kate’s merely being a mother who has had little help since her kids arrived. GOD BLESS U KATE FOR STICKING IT OUT THIS LONG….
On July 6th 2009, i know wrote:

Jon is a lazy husband??? Why is it that we see Kate sitting around (doing nothing herself) barking orders at Jon to do this or that? or if he is doing something without her telling him too, then he is doing it wrong? Open your eyes people…Jon is the one who gave baths, changed diapers, took care of household repairs etc….Maybe he looked lazy, not because he did not want to do those things, but because he had orders barked at him all the time? I would not be so willing to do stuff if I got critiqued every time I started a job either!
On July 25th 2009, Kidsarenotchattel wrote:

Kate had been abusive to her parents, to her sister in law, to her brother, to her husband and her kids.
Because she’s demanding TLC exploits it as ‘good television’. Her whole family needs to do an intervention and get those kids either off TV or into a new home who won’t exploit them. JON GOSSLIN, stand up for your kids. Take them out of this situation.
On August 14th 2009, Michelle wrote:

Most people who don’t spank at all don’t see the puropse of spanking. I have heard it all, reasons for spanking, reasons for not spanking. I have 3 kids (16, 12, and 9) and they are all different. I believe that if you love your children you will do what you have to, to teach, discipline, and maintain order in your household. I have seen people who didn’t spank but the problem with them was they didn’t discipline at all, and their kids were absolute terrors! I have seen people who didn’t spank but not because they didn’t discipline, but because they used other forms of discipline ** that worked, that is the key. It doesn’t matter what form of discipline you use, if it doesn’t work you should abanden it, period. I have used spanking, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t, generally it worked if they needed a physical reminder that their behavoir, attitude, or what ever the situation was at the time was unacceptable. But if the spanking was given, and the behavior continued, it was clear to me that the spanking was not working, and another form of discipline was used. The other thing is that a spanking by my definition is 3 swats on the bottom, when I am NOT mad. Let me tell you there were times it was hard to wait until I had cooled down but, my primary concern was that my child was safe. I have had many conversations about disciplne with my children over the years and I have always ended them with this statement: My purpose is not to punish beyond the point that you have learned your lesson. So if I ground one of them for a week for something, and they turned around and did it again, that obviously didn’t work, so I have to either come up with some other form of discipline, or if the form in this example grounding, was the correct form of discipline then the terms would be say 2 weeks the next time. If one of my children would not comply to rules, physical labor has ALWAYS worked, after a few times of having to scrub the bathroom floor, the next time is all I have to say is ” man the bathroom floor sure is looking like it needs to be scrubbed” . They shape up real quick. ;) As a parent it should be our first priority that our children grow up and are well rounded, considerate people, that contribute possitively to society, whether cameras are following us or not.
On August 18th 2009, olivia wrote:

okay. im 14 and i have 5 other siblings. 2 at my dads 3 at my moms. My stepdad used to abuse us. i live at my moms so theres four kids. elijah is 4, taylor is 11 and dennon is 13. i am fourteen. yeah, i bet my mom and stepdad got frustrated with us. But spanking? seriously? i’d rather be grounded for a year. Spanking your kids just makes them afraid of you. My little brother elijah is terrified of his father; my stepdad. Before Elijah was born he used “the stick ” on us. Everytime my stepdad comes around Elijah gets scared and it breaks my heart. He doesnt touch me anymore because i learned not to show fear of what he was doing to us. I would hide my fear during the day & cry myself to sleep at night, it hurt. What Kate did was stupid and not right.
On August 19th 2009, Yvonne wrote:

Bottom line (No pun intended)

If an adult hitting a child is such a viable and fabulous form of discipline, why hide it away?

You choose to do it, you should be proud of yourself and not afraid to showcase your parenting skills to everyone.

Isn’t that right?

I don’t have any problem parenting my children in front of others. I’m not ashamed.

Why are the spankers usually HIDING??
On September 5th 2009, Nan wrote:

There is nothing wrong with a swat now and then. Of course beating is wrong but so is acting like the only way to react to your child is to reason with and talk to them in a really annoying high pitched sing-song sugar coated voice, You may have all the parenting skills in the world and have self control and still find yourself in a situation where a swat is in order.
On September 15th 2009, Angie wrote:

Those kids are such unbearable brats, but it’s a known fact that when you beat and abuse your kids they are difficult and never does it help only makes them worse. So them being such brats is a perfect form of proof that she’s abusing them in some way. But again, they’re so annoying I’ve wanted to hit them myself, and keep in mind I’ve raised 2 children and never once spanked them, and well neither are brats.
On October 7th 2009, Jeremy wrote:

So what? I don’t necissarily agree with spanking but parents do that all the time, I don’t see how it is so different now that Kate is doing it.
On October 9th 2009, Adisone wrote:

I agree Kate is a very unhappy miserable person and I don’t buy any of her poor me interview antics. I can’t believe the woman at the View buy her B.S.