I can understand why people feel it’s unacceptable but I don’t think it should be banned at all nor should the occasional smack be seen as abuse, I think it makes a mockery of actual abuse.
I certainly don’t think people should be smacking as a default response on a regular basis though, it should be an occasional punishment where gentler methods have failed or where you need to regain control quickly, if the child is about to run into the road of touch a hot hob for example.
Used occasionally there is nothing cruel or abusive about it imo.
People say ‘if smacking worked you wouldn’t need to keep doing it’, but you could say exactly the same for time outs or shouting or confiscation of possessions.
All of which require frequent repetition....
So do they not work either?
And actually, sometimes a single smack can be very effective indeed and not need any repetition.
Reporting someone for a single snack in public is absolutely repugnant.
You are seeing a split second of parenting.
There is a huge difference between neglect and/or abuse be that emotional or physical and the odd split second smack in an otherwise healthy loving parental relationship.
Most likely, that child has a very happy and stable family home and undue distress would be caused by reporting.
There is not a social animal in the land that does not use (severely inhibited) physical punishment to discipline their youngsters.
A quick smack shouldn’t be leaving marks nor causing extreme pain, certainly not causing injury or putting the child in any danger, I don’t believe it causes any psychological damage as an occasional punishment in an otherwise loving, stable environment.
I don’t agree that the spike in violent crime, stabbing etc is down to smacking either.
If that was the case why wasn’t it a much bigger problem before when smacking was far more commonplace, even by teachers and neighbours?
More and more children are growing up into appallingly rude, mannerless individuals with zero consideration for anyone else.
They have no problem being offensive to others but can’t take it when it gets handed back to them.
I suspect the ‘gentle parenting’ trend, the idea that you mustn’t shout or smack or discipline at all really has something to do with it..
Violent crime offenders have more often than not been subject to actual abuse, not an occasional smack in a loving family but sustained emotional and often physical and/or sexual abuse.
Poverty is often a factor, as are addictions, which too are linked to poverty and it is not a coincidence that areas with the highest gang crime just so happen to be almost always poverty stricken too.
But let’s just blame smacking.
It’s far easier than tackling the actual root cause of the problem.