I think the current government should ban the smacking of children!

[JC544D]

I think the current government should ban the smacking of children!

Agreed. It’s banned in scotland and many other countries in the world, with international research evidence that is likely damaging and at best not effective.

As in criminalise it?

Or put funding into creating education and support for parents that will promote healthy parenting practices?

Agree. It's a complete lack of control on the parents side, not an effective discipline tool

Well it’s already seen as unacceptable even if it isn’t illegal, if a parent hits their child ss would be notified so it’s already not considered acceptable

I think theres far more important things for government to be doing right now, like stopping kids being groomed by all the trans stuff into demanding experimental drugs and surgery's.

This has recently happened in Wales.

@VelvetChairGirl

I think theres far more important things for government to be doing right now, like stopping kids being groomed by all the trans stuff into demanding experimental drugs and surgery's.

They can do more than one thing at once.

Protecting children from being abused is pretty important.

Protecting children from being abused is pretty important.

It is. But children are still being abused even though its against the law. I'd prefer more resources being put into social services. A complete overhaul of the whole service.

VelvetChairGirl
"I think theres far more important things for government to be doing right now"

I disagree, the abuse of children is never acceptable!

I disagree, the abuse of children is never acceptable

Smacking is legal. Beating children is illegal. Emotional abuse is not even acknowledged. Why do i assume you have no clue what you are talking about? You can argue with posters on here all you like. It doesn't help. Get a job where you work with children. That's the only way you will make a difference.

I am not convinced it would make any difference to whether it happens, or would help in those instances where it does.

Something can be socially unacceptable without being illegal, the law is not a particularly finely honed instrument.

Would it make a difference though?
And how would you police it ?

It's time we have some sunshine exposing those who smack little children.

It's not acceptable and should be banned!

Please tell me @jc544d what are you doing?? Tell people what they can do, sign, lobby? Or are you just shouting the obvious? If you don't stop arguing with people who are probably doing way more than you!

I appreciate your good intentions. In reality they are just useless words.

Honestly, I don't have children and I genuinely thought it was illegal. I'm usually fairly clued up on general news so I wonder how many people my age would assume the same.

It's always a hard topic, whether to outright ban something. I believe such policies should be evidence based, ie. you can demonstrate that it reduces harm and doesn't just make abusive parents better at covering their tracks. However, politicians aren't interested in evidence and it so rarely comes into policy, to all our detriment.

I agree. There are always posters on here who justify hitting little children. There is a cycle of abuse, those who are physically punished go on to hit others.
No one justifies a man hitting or physically abusing their child but MN has a lot of posters who justify hitting small children and no doubt post on threads about child cruelty to express their shock. Once hitting is part of behaviour management it escalates.
Any teacher who suspects physical abuse of a child has to report it as a matter of safeguarding.
It will become illegal in England. It is already illegal in Scotland and Wales. I am really shocked by posters that defend hitting children. You do wonder what happens in their homes.

It is already policed in schools and every school has a dedicated member of staff responsible for safeguarding.

Smacking is an ineffective punishment and doesn't work
But there is a huge difference between a parent who has got to the end of their tether and smacked their child in a moment of utter frustration and instantly regrets it
To parents that physically abusive on a regular basis.

As someone who was heavily beaten as a child, at a time when corporal punishment was regarded as normal, I completely agree with an outright ban.

My parents had a very high opinion of their own 'sensible' parenting and the fact that it was OK to hit children meant that there was no dissonance between their image of themselves, and the bruising on my legs where I had been whacked with a slipper or shoe for minor, often unintentional, misdemeanours.

The whole thing affects me to this day. For every parent that will, perhaps reasonably, give their child a light tap on the backside, there's another who will lose control and give free rein to their general frustrations by taking them out on their trying-to-please-but-always-getting-it-wrong child; and in the process, fuck that child up for the rest of its life.

Ban it. There is no other humane option.

@x2boys . It is exactly the same. No teacher with twenty five, four year olds would be excused hitting a child because they are at the end of their tether.
Once someone starts hitting a small child, it escalates. Violence is always wrong and your children will remember that you hit them and they are frightened of you. Is that what you want?

[quote Prudencia]@x2boys . It is exactly the same. No teacher with twenty five, four year olds would be excused hitting a child because they are at the end of their tether.
Once someone starts hitting a small child, it escalates. Violence is always wrong and your children will remember that you hit them and they are frightened of you. Is that what you want?[/quote]
Right ok 🙄

All this talk of 'light tapping'. If a man 'lightly taps ' his wife, is that ok? Posters who claim it is ok to smack a child wearing a nappy.
Light tapping, whatever that means, is not an acceptable form of dealing with a little child. It is not an acceptable form of behaviour management. It escalates and it is always ugly.

All nurseries and schools have behaviour management policies. Light tapping does not appear in any of them as an acceptable method of managing behaviour. I am a teacher, and if I suspected a parent of physically chastising their child, I would pass it on to the person responsible for safe guarding.
The use of violence in any form as a way of responding to conflict will be discussed in PSHCE. Do those who advocate 'light tapping' want the punishments they doled out in anger, shared with the class and the teacher?

[quote Prudencia]@x2boys . It is exactly the same. No teacher with twenty five, four year olds would be excused hitting a child because they are at the end of their tether.
Once someone starts hitting a small child, it escalates. Violence is always wrong and your children will remember that you hit them and they are frightened of you. Is that what you want?[/quote]
Bollocks. I was smacked as child when I was very naughty. It never escalated and I remember it more being an effective deterrent because of the shame element, not a deterrent because it hurt because it was "violent". I was not frightened that my dad would hurt me. He is one of the loveliest men I know.

The issue is much more nuanced and complex than smacking = evil and violent. I'm sure a lot of desperate parents on MN have shouted at their children and scared them, which for me is something I remember a lot more negatively as a child than being smacked! Of course I'm sure I'm an abused child in the eyes of some posters

Yanbu. Having grown up in a country where any form of physical punishment to children has been illegal for decades, it didn't stop parents from doing it and there weren't thousands of parents dragged to court, or millions of traumatised children because of it but I guess it gave more tools for authorities to protect those children with more abusive parents. And protected children from physical abuse at schools by teachers etc.