Smacking

[sophster]

How come it is illegal for an adult to hit another adult, and in the home this is called domestic abuse if a man hits his wife (or vice-versa) but when a parent hits a child it is perfeactly alright and is called smacking?

[kaktus]

Sophster I agree with you, bad parenting is not the same as spanking the child and vice versa, and like you and Cathy says it is very important to remember that not all youngster are bullies etc. one can make a lot of assumptions about other people and places built on fear or lack of information!

Blinky  another interesting point! Experiencing pain certainly is a part of growing up and learning new things about the world. But there must be limits, I doubt that many parents today stick their child�s hand in the fire or let them do it, just so they can learn that it�s ouch to do so. I guess the reason that I think the way I do is because in my opinion it�s wrong to hit or hurt people �period- and I personally can�t make any exceptions from that because it clashes with my own morals and understanding of how the world should be.

Ps. Once again I did not read my post before posting it, so I can see lots of words missing from my previous post. I hope it made sense anyway. 0)

[KPD]

If you smack your child, you will probably feel very upset and guilty afterwards, swearing (quietly) to yourself that you will never do it again. You will then learn that a child does not have to be smacked for you to change their behaviour - theres other ways to achieve the same end result.

If you do not feel guilty afterwards, then I would be seriously worried about how far this smacking will develop, and that the child will believe that the only way  to get on in life is to be aggressive.

The child will then turn out to be a yob, probably modelling themself on the parent.

Don't smack your child - theres other ways