I have one question for those of us who think it is somehow beneficial to children to hit them: Why do you quit when they turn into 180 pounds of solid muscle? We hit because we CAN, and we stop when we can't get away with it any more Generic Erectalis. It is not beneficial no matter how or why it is done. Have I hit my child? A couple of times, and only because I am a flawed human being. There really doesn't appear to be any more to this supposed friendship than meets the eye. The LW can not afford to be in the wedding buy Generic Erectalis. She does not have the money. The bride is putting pressure on her. She has every right to graciously bow outIt's really that simple. Prudies response pretty much covered the bases.Truth be told? Most weddings are pain in the a$$ and largely forgettable for everyone except the bride. They almost did you a favor in making it clear why you shouldn't waste another minute of your life with "friends" like that buy Erectalis. Make sure that any re-connection you have with them is from a distance! As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say on SNL, "Oh...then nevermind." I have two kids and two step-kids, and being a step-parent -- especially to teenagers -- is challenging. As a parent, you trust that you can make a few mistakes here and there without anyone questioning that you all still love and care for each other. As a step-parent, that cushion isn't there in the same way. And loving somebody who isn't being warm to you is a real leap of faith.But as other posters have said, being reliable, patient and cheerful goes a long, long way. So does making sure you do your part with the "administrative" aspects of parenting: cooking, cleaning, driving, helping with homework, buy Erectalis 20mg, and basically being the grownup. In a lot of ways it's like feeding a toddler: you have to make sure you keep up your end of the deal, but you can't really control what happens beyond that.Hopefully "confused" can give the situation some more time and see whether things get easier. I think that for people my age and older (30) getting spanked was a part of life. The occurence has certainly decreased with time. So, if there was a strong correlation between violent behavior and spanking, wouldn't we expect to see a drop in violent crime when normalized over age? My parents never spanked me hard enough that it acutally hurt, it was more the embarassment and humilation of the situation buy Erectalis. They always attempted to reason with me first, so as I got closer to the age of reason, the number of spankings drastically decreased to the point where I don't think I got a single one after I hit 6 or so. At that point it was more effective to punish me by taking some activity I wanted away.I think we've gone a little hysterical over the whole situation. It's sort of like car seats. We've almost hit the point where some people will go from needing to ride in a car seat to driving...... Oh, never mind! Thank God there are still rational, non-hysterica, non-dramatic and non abusive parents raising kids in the world today. My point exactly, now a spank is not a spank it's brutality against children. You obviously equate blows with smacks. Not at all buy Erectalis 20mg dramatic. All children are robots who respond the exact same way to discipline and it's working out great. Looks like we need to change the dictionary definition of spank to brutality against children. I have 2 daughters (2 and 5) and we EXTREMELY rarely do spank. It was the same way for me growing up. About to run into the street after being warned not to? Spanked. Absolutely losing all control in a tantrum? Spanked. Keep in mind this isn't bringing out the paddle or anything buy Erectalis. This is a quick swat or 2 on the rear end to get their attention (not even enough to leave a red mark) and it has happened probabably about 5 times for my older daughter and 2-3 for the younger.We do timeouts and taking things away as our 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th options. But there are times where a little more is needed. Go ahead and call me abusive if you want but I stand by my position on this.