Thread: To smack or not to smack?

Originally Posted by ndw76

the UN is unhappy with Australia because the New South Wales Government is refusing to outlaw smacking.

Where does the UN get off telling a sovereign nation how parents may discipline their own children?!? Kudos to the New South Wales gov't for giving the UN the middle finger.

I would say I'm indifferent to the idea, I would imagine sometimes you need to get small kids attention some how, and that is probably an effective way of doing it.

I think that probably good parents and bad parents smack their kids - I imagine the bad parents lost any kind of authority a long while before it became routine. I imagine good parents don't actually do it nearly as often as they threaten too.

I can remember as a kid me and my brother fighting and my brother holding my arm around his neck, my mum went mental and threw him off me and smacked me a few times. Little git. I would say that is one of my more enduring memories and it's not a bad little story really.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

It depends on the child. It will help to correct bad behaviour in some kids but not in others. Consistency is the key. Sometimes the parents are more out of control than the kids.
We are now seeing a generation of parents which has been infantilised, they've not really become adults themselves. Smacking becomes a form of retribution rather than firm guidance.

+1 from here.
I never had to smack my kids when they were little (now teenagers) , but i surely know few kids (and/or their parents) who would need a smack or two.

We never tried to keep a discipline too hard, but our kids never did anything (or at least that i know ) that would have needed smacking . They knew that if i really have to start using my voice then they have already gone over the top. Didn't have to use my voice too often either.

It is sad that so many young parents today have grown without any discipline, and now as they have children of their own they are totally lost without getting any role model from their own parents.

I was probably cuffed on the backside a few times, but, I recall being spaking by both my parents, (once each that I remember), and both were well deserved. I think I turned out okay, but, know that my Dad and I were life-long buddies, and I regard my Mother as a saint. Taking care of her now in her later years.

I dished out a spanking or two, feeling bad afterwards, but, think it was proper and properly given.

As long as it isn't some pre-determined sentence, done with restrained measure to notify, but, not hurt the child that the matter/behavior was serious and they needed to understand that.

I feel that the UN has alot of nerve to impose their 'ultra-peaceful' doctrine on any country, let alone an established country.

The phrase 'out of line' doesn't hold enough oomph.

I have on one occasion slapped my son on the bottom when he was small and have never had need to do it again, I feel that consistency in parenting is far better than corporal punishment, my son knows I mean what I say, and no amount of negotiating,crying or whining will alter that fact, I also feel that yelling does more harm than a corrective smack on the bottom, and the only times I have raised my voice with him is when he has done something that has caused me to be frightened for his safety. Good parenting starts in infancy, not when the child is 3 or 4, by then it is too late and corporal punishment is too aften the only recourse that poor parents can think of. I am not my childs friend I am his dad, but hopefully he will regard me as a friend when the time comes. But that doesn't mean that a corrective slap, if used responsibly, is a bad thing in my opinion. However I do believe that you should never hit your child out of anger but rather out of love and the desire to help form them into productive, well adjusted members of society. This parenting thing sure is hard, and the mistakes I make will have lifelong consequences for my child, I just try to do my best.

Originally Posted by hardblues

I dished out a spanking or two, feeling bad afterwards, but, think it was proper and properly given.

That is a point I forgot to mention. I always felt my mum felt awful after raising a hand to me and my brother. I think I was aware of it the whole time.

My parents never smacked me but making it illegal is nonetheless a strange concept to me.

I got spanked a couple of times when I was younger, and I deserved it as well...! It never did me any harm and, TBH, I cant help but feel its time that there was a shift away from this ultra-liberal, touchy-feely, "we must understand the poor darlings" mentality.

Over the last 15 to 20 years I've really noticed that kids are not disciplined as much, and certainly not in schools. And I've also noticed that there are far more reports of kids committing crimes.

I've had a couple of 7 year old girls hurl a stream of abuse at me in the street because I told them to stop throwing stones at peoples windows. I'd never have been there throwing stones when I was a kid, and if I had been and I'd been caught, theres no way I'd have started effing and blinding at the adult who caught me.

They do say that discipline starts at home, and maybe if these two girls parents were a bit tougher on them, and maybe even spanked them, they wouldnt be on the road to Lambrini swilling, dope fuelled idiocy in their teenage years.

The fact that the UN has such objection to this horrible violence, (spanking children), encourages me with a certainty that any day now they'll focus their concerns on:

Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.