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

[speakout]

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

Brilliant news.

I agree speakout. Parents who hit their children know it's wrong because they always try to minimise it by calling it a "tap" or some other stupid word.

Of course you don't want to admit hitting a child. Because it's a fucking awful thing to do.

It's a difficult one.

I won't ever smack my children, due to actually getting beaten as a child with implements and I do remember it and do feel traumatised. However my husband got smacked and genuinely didn't see an issue. In fact he said it worked, was a good threat to stop him being naughty.

It does make me uncomfortable when laws start trying to control how people parent. Different children respond better to different methods. Surely a reasonable non abusive adult should be able to make that choice. God forbid CIO is deemed abusive or some other parenting debate.

Despite the drama on this thread a quick smack that gets the point across (usually for extreme behaviour) which doesn't leave a mark is not abuse (and is frankly insulting to actual abused children). And before you sarcastically change 'child' to 'wife' it's not a husbands role to discipline his wife in any way (even a 'gentle' method), but it is good parenting

So I'm on the fence about this.

My friends son was circumcised by his dad because she made the mistake of having a child with someone of a religion which circumcises little boys.
He took him out one morning at ten days old, came back a few hours later with no foreskin the poor little mite.
Police did nothing because in this culture it's 'the norm' FUCKING BULLSHIT

I feel like once this becomes law, speakout will be scouring the streets all day every day, desperately waiting for someone to smack their kid, so that they can phone the police and add it to their spreadsheet!

Don't get me started on circumcision. Who would you that to a baby? On the most delicate part of their little bodies. Culture my arse. It's child abuse.

By the way, I am in favour of smacking being illegal, although I am not sure if will make much difference or be all that enforceable.

Maybe it’s because I was actually beaten as a child that i know the difference between the terms.

@RebelRogue - but surely that would make you angry about ANY violence towards children? Obviously a beating is worse but smacking still hurts. Surely any adult inflicting pain on any child isn't ok?

The law (in the UK) allows for restraint of people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves

But not to snack them afaik.

Again, not the role of adults to discipline people who lack mental capacity.

Not the same thing

How do you think it will be policed how are people going to know.

@StepAwayFromGoogle tbh I’m not actually completely against the new law,and in my first post I said I actually see and understand the thinking behind it. I haven’t smacked DD in 3 years and I only did it 3 times. I’m not defending MY right to smack.

But because of send them all to jail,it’s all beatings, they’re all abusive I got a tad riled up. Life is not always black and white.

Great news. Cannot stand anyone hitting, especially a child.

It's no less enforceable than hitting you wife? That happens behind closed doors too and generally with someone too scared to speak out.

How do you think it will be policed how are people going to know

Hopefully it will be "policed" by over time becoming completely unacceptable. It also means that parents can't claim that they were "just" smacking their child - it makes the line much easier to judge as to what is lawful and what is not.

Uokbing Lol! Great post! Hilarious that the OP wants to protect children from being hit! Give yourself a pat on the back

Good. I see what pp are saying regarding things going on behind closed doors but it’s the message it sends as well imo. It’s making adults aware that it’s not ok to smack children. Obviously it should be common sense that smacking children is not okay, but some parents are of the “it did me no harm” school of thought and may think of smacking as an appropriate punishment just because that’s how they were raised

It’s perfectly possible to teach children right from wrong without smacking.

Some children hit their parents for fun

Surely hitting them back just tells them it's OK to hit people so long as you're bigger than them?

naughty child tries to run away from parents. Parent grabs child's arm as potential risk to child going missing. Parent has now commited an assault and at risk of prosecution

Not an issue. All that would happen would be that the current defence of reasonable chastisement would be removed; other defences such as the use of reasonable force in self defence or to prevent harm would remain in place. They work OK for assaults on adults and non-related children, there is no reason why they shouldn't for assaults on the accused's own children.

I don't think it would help anyone, including children, to prosecute parents for something very minor.

I doubt that they would be prosecuted for minor offences. However, the fact that they have, for instance, had a formal warning or caution from the police may well be all that is needed to keep the child safe.

Or maybe they may think twice about you for fun again?

Fwiw, I come from a place where smacking children has been illegal for a long time now. It still goes on behind closed doors, of course. In otherwise completely normal families with no other safe-guarding concerns. It just isn't talked about in public, generally parents and even the kids learn to keep quiet about it for fear of police/social services. But maybe there is a slow change of attitudes, might take a couple of generations like a pp said. I still think that some education/support provision for parents would be more efficient in ensuring that they don't just repeat what their own parents did.

Hitting you

@RebelRogue, I can see that sending parents straight to jail for smacking is at best an overreaction and at worst completely destructive. You'd hope that there would be some degree of support available in the first instance I.e. SS being able to educate parents as to the emotional and psychological damage of pain as a method of discipline. If they were smacked, it's likely that they will parent the same. In this we are in agreement. In fact, it looks like we are just in agreement.

It is so silly to single out smacking. I know a loving couple who regularly smacked, a happy successful family now with the children grown or nearly so. I also know a couple who would never smack but locked a 6 year old in their room for a whole afternoon for a minor transgression, now a rather troubled 8 year old.

There are so many cruel punishments which will remain legal. Parenting needs to be judged in the round and, with the exception of unreasonable cruelty or neglect (where the children should be removed), parents should be supported to improve parenting,not dragged in front of a court.

When you actually talk to children most do not regard a smack as the worst punishment although there does seem to be bit of a sex divide with boys preferring a smack more to removal of privileges or some other sanction.

I can't believe that smacking isn't already illegal!

It's a step in the right direction, but to be honest, it will be a pointless law. Like the no smoking in a car with under 18's in it. Making something illegal doesn't stop people doing it and unless there are more officials to enforce the laws of the land, I fail to see how this will help children.