Spanking your kids hurts them now, but could it hurt them later?

I ran across an interesting story last Friday about a science study that was done claiming that spanking or physical punishment could lower children's IQ. You can read the article at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33013187/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/.

This claim struck me pretty hard because I've always wondered why I'm not a genius. I'm not a genius because of my parents, they stunted my brain growth everytime they spanked me.

Okay you caught me, I'm being a little over dramatic. I do think this study is interesting, however I don't really believe the claims. After reading I ask many of my friends if they were spanked as children and most of them said yes at one time or another. And guess what, we are all in College at a very good school. It seems like everyone I asked about this subject had been spanked at least once and they are doing just fine. And that made me think, whats the line between abuse and physical punishment. I could see if there was a connection between lower IQ and abuse victims because it's much more tramatic than a spanking.

This is my opinion from my point of view, so of course different people will think and feel different things. I'd like to know your opinion on the matter. But if this article does do one thing for me, the next time I get a bad grade on a test I'm going to call my parents and blame them for it. Who knows maybe it will work.