February 3rd

On this morning's news, a British Government official raised the question about child punishment. The Justice Secretary defended child smacking, saying that he smacked his now grown children when they were young and considered the smack necessary to teach a lesson.

Child smacking and the law http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21311916

• UK parents have not been explicitly prohibited from smacking their children.
• The 2004 Children's Act removed the defence of "reasonable chastisement" for any punishment towards a child that leads to bruising, swelling, cuts, grazes or scratches.
• Any adult found guilty of breaking the law may face up to five years in jail.
• Physical punishment is prohibited in all maintained and full-time independent schools, in children's homes, in local authority foster homes and Early Years provision.

However, the law seems to have been taken to the extreme. If a parent raises their hand to a child in a public place like a supermarket, they're likely to be regarded with disapproval, angry stares, even comments from others.

morguefile

If we look to the animal kingdom, we can see a lion or tiger batting their offspring when annoyed. A smack is a way of capturing the youngster's attention. Of course, a parent shouldn't injure their child. If they didn't care about them, why would they bother to teach them not to behave badly?

I admit to smacking my children in the seventies after they disobeyed a rule. When I think back, I wonder why. And yet, they behaved well on the whole and we had a loving, happy relationship. They knew, by the time they reached their double figures, what they could and couldn't get away with. I believe in discipline to this day. Self-discipline that is. I'm not sure if smacking a child teaches that attribute, but at least children were a pleasure to be around and didn't become delinquent. Now days, the lack of discipline in the home is blamed for poor standards and attendance at schools.

What do you think about smacking?

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