To ask if you could be friends with someone who...

[fireducks]

Admitted they would smack their 2.5 year old child if their child ever hit them.

I'm not sure if I'm projecting my own issues from my childhood as my mother was very shouty and smacked me constantly. But the idea of smacking children turns my stomach and has had lasting damage on me. Unfortunately it's not illegal so they aren't doing anything against the law but I can't stop thinking about it and have lost all respect for my friend.

Wondering if I'm BU here to feel so strongly and let it effectively ruin our friendship.

I definitely wouldn't be able to continue being friends with someone who would hit their child

Have they said that or done it?

Do they mean a tap back or a smack?

Is it just that they know no better and can you direct them to a better parenting method?

I'm friends with people from Cultures were smacking is acceptable and I've managed to help them find better methods.

It's ugly behaviour imo but on its own it wouldn't be enough for me to end a friendship, provided it was a light smack and not more than that.

I would however like to see it made illegal.

We were out at the park with our dc and saw a child of a similar age in the hitting their mother in the face when having a tantrum and she said if xyz did that to me I'd slap her straight in the face. She is very snappy at her dc and doesn't pick her battles. Every single tantrum is made into a huge deal and escalated by her, which is annoying in itself to be honest because she does have a short fuse.

I've never witnessed her doing it and she hasn't said if she has smacked her before. There are no cultural reasons as to why she would do this.

But just knowing she'd see no issues in this has left me feeling like I don't want to know her to be honest. It was the tone in which it was said, like the child would deserve it in her opinion.

No difference between a "tap" and a smack imo. I wouldn't stay friends with her, no way.

Nobody should ever hit a child in the face. That's awful, I wouldn't be friends with someone like that.

Children (especially toddlers) learn from the people around them, I've never understood the concept of teaching a child not to hit, by hitting them yourself. It sends mixed messages and isn't a very effective way to teach the child to be kind. I'm very much for sternly telling a child that what they're doing is wrong annd why, but hitting really doesn't teach a lesson.