Court Opinion

ID: 9688115
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:31:06.033021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:34.953378
License: Public Domain

NEUMANN, Justice,
concurring specially.
I have joined the majority’s opinion, but write separately to remind myself that what is legally sufficient often is, and must be, less than what is socially desirable.
I suspect corporal punishment, regularly and consistently applied, can only diminish a child’s sense of self-worth, and thereby unnecessarily limit the resources that child can bring to life’s battles. Because all of us as parents and as citizens want to equip our children in the best ways possible to meet their future, a future that is ours as well, I believe the regular use of corporal punishment is a practice to be avoided.
But, if corporal punishment is a practice that ideally should be avoided, such perfection in parenting is not a standard to which we fallible, struggling, impatient humans can or should be held as a matter of law. Accordingly, our legislature has defined “child *336abuse” and “harm” to forbid only excessive corporal punishment that results in injury. It is that legislative definition which this court is obligated to apply, and which the majority has properly applied in this case. We should understand, however, that while avoiding physical or mental injury to our children is the most that is demanded of us by the law, it is the least we owe our children. Fortunately for our children and for ourselves, most parents — including, I think, the petitioners in this case — strive to be better than the minimum the law demands of us.
NEUMANN and MESCHKE, JJ., concur.