Smacking your kids (1 Viewer)

[Frigid]

herald:

Two state premiers have dismissed calls for a national ban on smacking, insisting parents have the right to discipline their children responsibly.

The Australian Childhood Foundation has called for a nationwide ban on smacking after it found 45 per cent of Australians believe it is reasonable to leave a mark on a child by smacking them.

In a poll of 750 adults, the child welfare group found 70 per cent of people support smacking, while 10 per cent believe it is appropriate to hit a child with an implement.

A report by the Australian Childhood Foundation recommends state governments change their laws allowing parents to physically punish their children.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said a smack on the bum never hurt anybody.

"Everything in moderation," he told Macquarie Radio.

"You don't use it as an excuse for violence and you don't hurt them.

"A smack on the bum never hurt any kid, in my view."

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he would not be changing the law because the current NSW laws provide the necessary balance between preventing child abuse and allowing parents to discipline their children.

"Our laws provide that appropriate balance," Mr Iemma told reporters, "in the government having strong laws against abuse and harm, and sending a very strong message about protecting kids, and at the same time recognising the responsibility of parents and the role of parents."

s61AA of the Crimes Acthttp://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s61aa.html provides a defence of lawful correction, which is a defence to the application of force by a parent onto a child, as long as that the force was reasonable having regard to the circumstances, and not to the head or neck area, nor any injury that lasts for more than a short period.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

I think the current laws are perfectly fine.

The suggestions by the ACF are rather naive and impractical. Parents need to be able to discipline their kids, or else they'll have little control over their behaviour. Parents need to have the ability to raise children in line with appropriate norms.

For once Iemma said something sensible: the current laws do provide a proper balance. So long as the application of force is reasonable, and as the act says, not to the head or neck, and of a temporary/minimal impact, I don't see the problem.

I suspect a national ban on smacking would very likely help produce a generation of little monsters.

 

[LynH1326]

I agree, and the way things are going now, we already have a generation of terrors.
I don't remember being smacked, even though mum and dad said they did. I turned out fine.
I think the legal smacking is underneath the shoulders and above the knee, not hard enough to create a bruise but for rehabilitation of a bad behaviour such as running into the street or climbing up on the roof with a hammer and smashing 36 roof tiles (true story, my brother did it at age 3).
Its just when the minority think that leaving marks and thrashing to the point of bleeding and bruising and broken limbs that it is wrong.

Think of the future... kid in trouble for doing something really bad, parents now being questioned by the police.
COP: why didn't you dicipline your kid?
PARENT: the government outlawed spanking.....

Its the notion that every age group should be diciplined differently so as to correct bad behaviour. If that means a smack on the bum, so be it. These NIMBY groups should see what its like to have an unruly monster for a child, I wonder if they'd practice what they teach then?

 

[riddla23]

smacking ur kids. gosh. like it depends. like. there is so many better ways to disapline ur kids. i have gone throught the smacking it dun work

 

[littlewing69]

smacking ur kids. gosh. like it depends. like. there is so many better ways to disapline ur kids. i have gone throught the smacking it dun work

Are you high?

 

[Frigid]

What's wrong with hitting a kid with an implement?

for the very reason that a baseball bat is an implement. so is a machete.

 

[Frigid]

battery is battery is battery is battery, AMM.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

I got the belt a couple of times from my father when I was young. Only for really major offences though. Usually it was just a hand smack.

My mother's weapon of choice was the wooden spoon, and for extra punishment a spatula.

 

[Nakashima]

I got the belt a couple of times from my father when I was young. Only for really major offences though. Usually it was just a hand smack.

My mother's weapon of choice was the wooden spoon, and for extra punishment a spatula.

My grandma once threw her shoe at me. My mum has thrown some random household objects too. There was just one time when my dad got really really angry and slapped me across the head quite hard.

The most common form of physical punishment I recieved as a kid was just being pulled by the ear.

 

[neo o]

I got the belt a couple of times from my father when I was young. Only for really major offences though. Usually it was just a hand smack.

My mother's weapon of choice was the wooden spoon, and for extra punishment a spatula.

Haha, our parents must have shared notes, mine used the wooden spoon too! If she was particularly annoyed her weapon of choice was the plastic spoon.

 

[littlewing69]

Haha, our parents must have shared notes, mine used the wooden spoon too! If she was particularly annoyed her weapon of choice was the plastic spoon.

We had a metal spoon for capital offenses :S