Read this and stay sane.

[brionon]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml =/news/2008/03/22/nsmack122.xml

[tiggerblue10]

Jeez!

I was smacked by my mum loads of time when I was a kid. She never beat me to a pulp or anything like that. It was just small slaps for being naughty. Didn't do me any harm.

Beating a child is a completely different thing!

[lou 26]

what the heck? that poor woman! What sort of country are we living in when you cant even discipline your kids without being punished!

[anotheoldgit]

Something not quite right here when a15 year old child reports his parents to the police, over such a trivial matter.

Do we know if there had been an history of disfunction in this family?

[I.Don No]

this government along with the population should rid this country of the pc brigade and repeal the human rights act or at least amend it.

Children should receive discipline (and I am not talking just about smacking, but the bit where if A happens then B always follows, whether A is good or bad and B is praise for good behaviour or consequences appropriate if A is bad)first at home from loving parents and this should then be followed by discipline throughout school without parents complaining but with parents' involvement.

How else are our children to learn that everyone has boundaries to adhere to?

[saxy_jag]

Schools are the root of all evil, and Mrs Pope is better off out of it.

[Le Chat]

Well the school is certainly getting publicity now!!! The 15yr old dick of a son has cost his mother her job, had his brother and sister put on an 'at risk' register and all the details of this 'nothing' of a case spread all over the paper. Now I know whose bottom I would be smacking if I were the parents!

[bensmum]

Interestingly there has been a news item on the radio this morning where they were saying that children who are spoilt at home expect to be able to throw the same sort of tantrum in the classroom. Some parents don't set boundaries and seem unable to control their children. I don't advocate child abuse but a smack when a child has been warned about their behaviour does no harm. The PC brigade will say that it teaches a child that violence is okay but how come those brought up in the 50s & 60s when smacking was accepted aren't all violent psychos now?

[Abdulmajid]

Bloody stupid 15 year old for grassing.

If his parents have any sense they she kick the bloody sh!t out of him and give him something to really call the police about.

If a child deserves a beating, let alone a simply smack on the rump, I see nothing nothing wrong.

The age of criminal responsibility is set at 10 years in England, so they have to know what punishment is.

My parents, to the best of my knowledge never hit me.

Why???

Not because they are woolley, Linda McCartney eating Marxists, but because I respected my Fathers might and dominance that the "fear" of being slapped by him was enough for me to behave.

The same reason why I was never spanked at school.

I strongly maintain that if schools and parents give naughty children a damn good whacking, our chav and deliquent culture may soon fade out.

[Booldawg]

I hope those two little Sh1ts really feel the pinch when they get no new video games, pocket money, foreign holidays, nice clothes and decent food on the table. LOL, I'd be rubbing that one in for years! 'well YOU cost me my job so you get nothing!'

[radiogaga]

social services will probably visit this family twice per week.
(at least) then they'll see this family are not worth their resorces or time, as plenty of other cases will pop up, where 'real' children who are suffering 'real' harm/abuse will need protection. i hope the social work services who have a duty of care wont make such a negligent judgement this time.

[keyplus90]

Beating a child is not good but sometimes little smacks are necessary for descipline. I know few parents really inflict physical abuse but they are not even 1%. Others do with a view to tell them what is wrong and what is right in the future. Amazing thing is when a social worker is considered more caring and loving for the same child. How could that be possible. Had it been right then as someone else said all those people who grew up during the time when smacking was not bad are more well behaved than all the teenagers now a days. I know one thing that I would smack my child for his or her better future and the same goverment that stops me from doing it would just put him behind the bars if he does not behave tomorrow. For them just one more criminal and for me, Well I have lost my child, my future.

[persianlady]

I was always smacked for being naughty and it hasn't done me any harm. I also smacked my children who are now aged 28 and 31. If schools still had corporal punishment the kids would be a lot better behaved. I have no time for people who say that smacking is wrong. Children need discipline.

[claymore]

Good God , I am glad I don`t live in UK . What the hell is happening to this once proud and decent country? The more I read articles like this the more I`m convinced that most of those in the public service with any authority are either power crazed or mad

[tigerlily11]

If smacking a child tells it that violence is OK then why is there more violence in a generation brought up with no smacking than our generation which was brought up with smacking.

[persianlady]

Good question tigerlily. You have hit the nail right on the head. Smacking (not beating) is a good way to instill discipline in young children. You cannot reason with a two year old