Misleading media is ruining our society

Spanking Makes Toddlers Aggressive, Study Finds

This article is exactly the kind of thing that makes stupid parents more stupid.
For the record, I do not believe that people who choose not to spank their child are stupid or bad parents. However, I think they are leaving themselves with one less tool to use in the rearing of their child and many do it out of a misguided belief because of articles like this one. Not every parent should spank and not every child needs to be spanked, but spanking is not wrong.
However, from the point of view of a spanking parent, here are my questions after reading this article:
1. What is spanking according to your study? - is it the random smacking of a child's backside at every wrong deed? Is it overreacting when your patience is finally shot and you hit your kid? NONE of these things is spanking - they are abuse. They will make your kid more aggressive for many reasons, but mostly because the bond between you and the child is clearly broken.
2. The developmental change between ages one and two is significant and you think that spanking is the only factor to aggressive behavior? - How likely is it that one act of discipline will change a child's behavior in one year's time if everything else about that child's relationship with their parents is sound?
3. The study followed only low-income families - ding! ding! ding! The study found the children to be "more aggressive, more likely to be delinquent and to have mental health problems." These factors couldn't be contributed to the high rate of single parents, poor health care and education, poor early intervention, poor nourishment, more likely to be exposed to inappropriate violent behavior - all that can occur in low-income families. It couldn't be the poor access to parks and clean living, nor the overuse of television and violent music and movies.....
And here's what makes me so angry - you read this article and you think two things:
1. Spanking is wrong
2. A parent who spanks is uneducated and possibly too lazy to come up with anything else.
Here are my answers to those people:
YOU are the reason our children are unteachable and disrespectful and have low self-esteem.
I choose to spank my son because I'm educated and working hard to raise him into a gentleman. I choose to spank him because I love him, more than life itself. To spank is hardly easy. To purposefully inflict pain on your child is the hardest thing to do. And I think that's why people prefer articles like this, because it affirms their choice, the easy choice. In my experience, anything excruciating in parenthood is what's best for your child because we hate to see them hurt. But what's worse -a few tears that help them cement a vital lesson and learn to adapt to reality when they're developing those little brains, or a sociopathic teenager/young adult who thinks the world revolves around them and there are no consequences to their actions?
I love my son enough to TEACH him the difference and the results I've seen make it worth my broken heart. Sam has A LOT of exposure to peers, from the time he was 10 months old. And if there is one thing I've seen, spanking works. Of all the kids who were spanked, it was the ones who weren't who bit and bullied the other kids. Who could not share and did not know how to interact with the other children. The spanked children were LESS aggressive, better behaved, more willing to share their toys and they LEARNED quicker than the other children, who were constantly having to be separated from their peers for aggressive behavior.
There is a reason why most parents choose to spank, whether they admit it or not. If done correctly, in love and patience and education, it is a vital tool to parenting discipline. If done incorrectly, it breaks a bond between parent and child. But that is the parent's misuse of the tool, not the tool itself.
You can choose not to spank, but we should all thank a parent that makes the tough choice. Our society is better for it!