Search Results: her boyfriend around my child

I have one very outgoing little sister, and even though she’s only just turned eleven she’s already boy-crazy. Every few weeks she comes home from school or from a friend’s house or wherever, and tells me about a new boy she met who she’s started dating, and about how she’s so in love with him. She even talks about marrying them and having kids with them one day. However, within a week or two, something happens that causes them to break up, and eventually she meets a new boy, continuing the cycle.

At first I just thought it was funny and cute, but recently it’s started to worry me. All her friends are apparently the same way, and for some of them it’s landed them in some pretty inappropriate situations. For example, one of my sister’s friends, who’s around 11, is supposedly sexually active with her 13 year old boyfriend. That’s a scary thought.

Do any of you have younger siblings, children, or other family members or friends who are always infatuated with someone despite their age? Do you think it’s cute and that there’s no harm in it? Or do you think it’s something worrying that should be discouraged?

My boyfriend and I (both latinos) come from a background where we were hit too hard with a household object and both of us think that was too much.

My father would use a belt on me during my very early ages. Practically all the times it was used, he did it in frustration/anger and tend to overdo it to the point I was already crying and pleading for it to stop. He did the same to my younger brother. Long ago when my brother was only 2 years old and nearly dropped a teapot with boiling water, he left a couple bruises on his bottom and the back of one side of his leg was swollen with the belt and he only stopped when he accidently hit one side of his face with it (it happened when my brother was turning around to run).

In my bf's case, it was his mother that used to hit him with a stick or strap. It was pretty much done out of frustration/anger too.

This resulted in my complete hatred towards the usage of corporal punishment on a child, esp if it were my own kid; the person I'm suppose to love, protect, cherish, guide and teacher. My boyfriend only thinks spanking should be done with only the hands but never hard nor ever done in anger. Though his approach is a mild version in comparing to our backgrounds, I still have an issue spanking kids, even with the hands. I also don't agree with his stance that if you don't spank your child they'll grow up criminals.
Now back to my question, shouldn't spanking/hitting a child with a belt, sandals, sticks or any object be classified immediately as assault and child abuse? I definitely think so.