To be happy it will soon be illegal to smack children?

[speakout]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41678797

Brilliant news.

So who thinks the cane should be brought back in schools? LOL

Mee!!! Smack those fecking children! They drive us all mad!

When I was a child every teacher had a leather strap to punish kids. Ah the good old days.

I still think that educating new parents on different parenting strategies would be more effective in changing these attitudes.

GoingIn.

Until 1991 rape within marriage was legal.

Would it have been better to "educate" men not to rape their wives rather than make is a criminal offence?

What education do people need to know not to assault other citizens?
It's not complicated. They already know how not to hit annoying workmates/disobedient dogs/confused elderly people/other angry adults.

Should we set up tutorial groups for parents teaching them how not to assault small vulnerable people?

Speakout, why are you so against the idea that some (many?) parents may benefit from learning some different parenting strategies? Don't you think that would benefit the children?

GoingIn because I have little sympathy for adults who assault children.

These same adults usually can somehow bring themselves not to assault other people and animals.

It's just children that they seem unable to stop hitting.

They should educate themselves. They are not some hapless individuals who happen to have the hit children gene.

many think it's a perfectly good method of discipline. And why wouldn't they think that? They most likely had parents who gave them an occasional smack and are of the view that it didn't do them any harm. Wtr to rape in marriage, I'm glad that nowadays more is being done to educate youngsters on consent because I don't think criminalising rape within relationship made that much difference in changing people's attitudes towards what counts as consent. Surely you can see the benefit and the need for it, even though everybody should know not to rape others.

The people who abuse their children in this way won't care that to illegal

Exactly and I feel education would create a more lasting change.

They already know how not to hit annoying workmates/disobedient dogs/confused elderly people/other angry adults.

I think giving a disobedient dog a smack is generally seen as far more acceptable than smacking a child. And by smack I don't mean 'beating'.

I think giving a disobedient dog a smack is generally seen as far more acceptable than smacking a child. And by smack I don't mean 'beating'.

I disagree.

I think they are both seen as quite acceptable still.

You may not agree with it, but I know people who don't smack their children, but aren't averse to giving their dog a little smack for disobedience. Again, I'm not talking about a beating, more of a slap that's no more physically powerful than the dogs paws jumping up at them.

Dog's paws

Going in you are right of course, if we aren't smacking lots of parents will need new strategies. I'm sorry you are getting a hard time on here just for being sensible.

For what it's worth I think this is a stupid law and I see nothing wrong with a smack. I think laws like this are why we have so many unruly children and precious snowflakes . Smacking has worked for thousands of years, just as dogs and cats nip their Offspring.

Yes I'm the one to say it for everyone who is too frightened to post. I don't give a shit.

I see this as nothing but lip service. A parent who uses a smacked bottom or similar as a punishment isn’t going to be prosecuted, in fact they are unlikely to even be reported. It will make no difference whatsoever. It’s a law to make people ‘feel better’ that ‘something will be done’ if they disagree with another persons parenting style.

Even if the parents get reported, nothing will happen. I work with children that have been abused, that are living with drug addicts, that are living in complete and utter shit holes, that are emotionally shut in, are raging, are hungry, dirty, are neglected. They are still at home. There is nowhere for them to go. There are no children’s homes, no foster carers, no kindly grannies to take them in.

The parents are not prosecuted, not punished, not fearful of losing their children. In a school of 200 or so I could name, right now, at least 40 kids I wish I could spirit away from their wanker parents. It’s never going to happen.

Load of bollocks. This law isn’t going to stop Sharon and Barry smacking their kids for being naughty. It’s just going to make David and Tracy feel better about not doing it themselves.

Actually RTFT to check I'm not making points already made. Larry and Kokeshi mention Sweden, and I have to respond. I remember the ban in '79, and this is the reason I cheered when I heard about Scotland; as young people we were made thoroughly and studiously aware of the change in the law (through school projects and promotional interventions of a 'public information' ilk, for many years afterwards) that it was now illegal to hit and otherwise hurt children. The government made sure children all over the country knew their rights and knew what to do if these rights were infringed. I am certain this meant that children who did receive corporal punishment were less likely to internalise the shame, humiliation and hurt of their experiences; the government helpfully had taken the side of children and sign-posted clearly where the blame lay. If the children of Scotland can be saved from internalising their parents' loss of control and violence, that has to be a good thing.
Also Larry, I think it is unfair to suggest that the ban has been unsuccessful in Sweden. One of the greatest 'risk factors' for experiencing corporal punishment in Sweden is to grow up in a family of first generation immigrants from a country that permits hitting children, such as... the UK, for instance, who have not yet had time to assimilate this aspect of their new home. As one of the greatest recipients of such immigration per capita in Europe, and the thinking that changing behaviour is a generational, longitudinal thing, there is every chance that these families, with education and support, will embrace this aspect of integration in time. Until such a time, the law exist to protect vulnerable children.
There have been a few mentions of teachers managing to control big groups of children without resorting to corporal punishment. This is my job, and in my experience, the hardest children to work with are those who are harshly or excessively disciplined at home; as a professional you are never going to be able to 'out-discipline' a parent prone to shouting or lashing out, the children are desensitised to 'normal range' discipline, such as a disproving glance, proximity, or diversionary tactics. I have heard, Kokeshi about how things are playing out in some Swedish schools since I left (wrt the permissive 'special snowflake' approach some parents insist on), and I am so curious about how colleagues are handling it. But I don't attribute it to the ban on smacking.

So, it remains legal to slap a small child in the rUK. Some seem really quite proud of this fact.

I can t understand why parents in the UK are not offered parenting courses as standard. Something like The Incredible Years is a brilliant and supportive course that enables parents to build up a whole range of parenting strategies that are effective. Such a wasted opportunity...

I can t understand why parents in the UK are not offered parenting courses as standard

That's nanny state to the extreme.

Why don't we have spouse handling sessions?Or how to deal with disagreeable elderly relative courses? Or masturbation courses?

This is called human life. We can't expect the state to be responsible for our relationships. Including our choice to have kids.
It's up to us to get clued up.

May I remind everyone that laws against taping your wife were once covsodered a nonsense unenforceable law. I think it's great that our laws are taking a more civilised path, I sincerely hope and expect that the majority of people in our society will do the same.

Shouldn't any law focus on violence in general that rather than a specific law about hitting? There is no law which specifically states you can't hit someone, rather it is covered by the more widely encompassing definition of 'assault'.

This country does offer parenting courses. It depends on which area has the funding. It's another post code lottery to who has the more resources. People from all walks of life goes on them. There's no shame in going to one.

Surely Scotland's a country where smacking's in dire need?