Gentle Parenting has failed, lets accept this.

Maybe fully educate yourself about what gentle parenting is and how it works and why. You can soon see who is doing it correctly and it working. Then you'll be able to spot the cba "Oh I gentle parent" people!!

I work in and research in education and I can tell you the boundaries are blurred. You clearly know nothing about parenting or education.

I know. I'm am educational academic who has put decades of research into it. They are NOT similar and you clearly don't have a clue.

I have no idea how you've come up with this from what I've said.

Smacking is a violent act. You can't sugarcoat it.
If you smacked an adult you could rightly be charged with assault. Why is it OK to smack a child who is smaller and weaker than you?
'Gentle chastisement' is bullshit. Your idea of a 'gentle' smack might be totally different to me, or your neighbour or anyone else. It's an act that's open to interpretation.
AND you could argue that if it's gentle, i.e. doesn't hurt, what's the point? It's going to be a pretty ineffective deterrent/control measure.

Ok so we're teaching children that if someone does something you dislike you can hit them, but only if they're smaller and more vulnerable than you?

They aren't similar at all, and how does gentle parenting end badly?

Gentle parenting is literally being empathetic and kind and having boundaries.

How on earth is hitting someone "protection"? Talk about gaslighting.

In reality, actually they are quite similar. Both end badly. You can be empathetic and kind and still have boundaries.

There's more to it than that.

Not people in general but you're children that you have a legal and moral duty to discipline if they misbehave.

Like for example I wouldn't mind it being used as a form of legal punishment after someone's been convicted of something like shoplifting or vandalism for example.

Agree with this. I read a study a few years ago (I'll try to find it) that stated that in the majority of violent child on child crimes, the perpetrator came from an abusive household and I belive the same holds true for adult violent offenders.

This thread carries echoes of Delbert Grady's disciplinary/parenting manual from The Shining: 'I "corrected" [my creepy twins], Sir. And when my wife tried to stop me doing my duty I ... "corrected" her'.

Because surely 'they've got to learn!' (Learn that some parents are arseholes who can't keep control of their tempers, perhaps).

It is currently legal in England but there is a huge body of research that says it is absolutely not ok and causes long-term harm.

The Royal College of Paediatricians are lobbying to have it made illegal. Do parents who currently smack really think they know better? And in 20 years time will their grown-up children (who almost certainly will NOT be allowed to smack their own children) agree?

So what makes you think physical abuse will improve things?

I’ll never understand people wanting to hit their child. In no other situation would it be acceptable. Imagine if your partner was behaving in a way you didn’t like so you hit them? People would be horrified. Also what you’re describing doesn’t sound like gentle parenting, more like permissive parenting. Gentle parenting still involves boundaries. I’d recommend the book “there’s no such thing as naughty” by Kate Silverton before you advocate everyone just walloping their kids rather than teaching them how to regulate their behaviours.

You can absolutely discipline and teach a child right from wrong without hitting them. I think it should be banned, there's no need for it.
The children who murdered James Bulger weren't just born evil, it's really not that black and white. I remember reading years ago that Robert Thompson was being severely abused at home.. So I should imagine he was smacked a lot. I'm not going to make excuses for what he did but if he hadn't been left in that home would he have gone on to do what he did.

I'm really really glad you're not my mum

Hear, hear. I'll never get my head around why in some people's minds it's not OK to hit an adult and yet it is OK to hit a child.

Tbh I think the word 'smacking' itself is part of the problem, as having a different word for it fosters the notion that smacking is somehow not 'really' hitting. But it is. Obviously there are varying degrees, but it's still hitting.

It is hitting children. How is that not violent?

My children are 27 and 18 and have never been smacked. Not even once.

I cannot post an image due to recent events. But hopefully this will work.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/

Four styles overall, broadly

Most of us will be authoritative, gentle, etc

Some remain authoritarian

Then the other two, permissive and uninvolved. Permissive becoming an issue within society as a whole. Not the absolute love and adoration, but the lack of social norms

As do I. Can someone possibly explain how hitting another (smaller) person meets the definition of 'gentle?'

This is self justifying nonsense.

For physical chastisement to be a deterrent or a corrective of behaviour, it has to be a negative experience.

By definition it must be either physically or emotionally unpleasant or both.

That means it either physically hurts a child. Or makes them feel excluded and shamed. Or makes them feel fear. Or all three. You can’t have it both ways - claiming simultaneously that smacking is an important means of changing a child’s behaviour but also minimising the effect as just a ‘gentle’ smack.