Real Housewives of Potomac star Ashley Darby took to social media to respond to people criticizing her about an anti-spanking repost she put on her IG Stories. The original post read, “The unintended consequences of spanking: Increased risk of being victimized by abusive relationships in adulthood, more likely to hit, bully or use aggression to solve problems, low self-esteem, decreased IQ and cognitive development, negative parent-child relationships, and more depressive symptoms as an adult.”
She later defended her anti-spanking stance, saying, “There have been a lot of responses about the sign that I posted regarding how antiquated, outdated, and unnecessary spanking is to children. There have been a lot of insults to me about how I’m a new parent — ‘What do I know?’ ‘I’m trying to tell everybody what to do,’ XYZ. But for the most part, there’s been an overwhelmingly positive response where people are agreeing. And it makes me so happy to know that we are evolving, that we are learning, and we are doing better.”
She continued, “For those of you who are continuing to stand by believing and perpetuating the idea that showing physical pain is also showing love — which is just so counterintuitive and backward if you actually think about it — I encourage you to do some research. Look into the extensive research that has been done about children’s development and the negative ramifications of spanking later in life. Now I don’t know why it’s okay to pluck, hit, and whip children but yet that’s not okay to do to adults. Are you really saying that the only way that you can help a child learn to do the ‘right thing’ and be moral is by inflicting pain on them? No, that’s wrong. And you are minimizing and you’re completely missing just how intelligent children are and how the brain actually works, okay?”