To find it unsettling that mum's still threaten to smack childrens bums in public?

[kitya]

Ive just been to the nail parlour and this perfectly nice mum in her early twenties told her daughter that if she didnt sit still she would pull her knickers down and smack her bum. I thought that went out with the 70's? I didnt know where to look. She was telling me about starting uni and everything but, I couldnt concentrate and what she was saying after that.

Mental health even!!

:) No, Animation, that wasn't my intent really. In my line of work I've worked with lots of brilliant child psychologists.

I just meant that just because something is said by an expert does not mean it is always best or always the truth, or that there aren't ideas that come and go.

I think you just summarised it reallyinflames, love with any kind of decent discipline, where parent is trying their best, one as parent stands a good chance.
No love, no discipline, no care, child is doomed, one can't help but wonder Is there a hope, for such young adults in the future?

I wasn't trying to say I was a wonderful parent, I have faults, the same as anyone else. I just get fed up with the ridiculous assumptions people make. Which I'm sure smacking parents do as well. This is what I get annoyed about - in the end, we all agree! I'd say that respect, cause and consequence are very important to teach early on as well, but I don't think that smacking teaches that particularly well.

I'd love to go through that article and dismember it - so many bad assumptions there - but it was getting long, so I might put it on my blog instead, if I can't find anything which prohibits reproducing parts of it.

I wasn't being sarcastic, Bertie, I really do think you must be a very good parent. :)

Different things work for different parents and, most importantly, different children.

Thanks CheerfulYank :) I didn't read it as sarcastic but suddenly worried my post before that might have sounded like I was fishing for praise, which it wasn't.

I guess Bertie we will have to agree to disagree.

As a mental health professional I have not met a child/adult who has developed mental health problems from the occasional smack on the bum