Ooo well if this is a real thread then I will poke my nose in here! I have to say I'm not a big believer in smacking whatever the circumstances but however, my parents very occassionally smacked us if we were being particularly horrid and I can honsestly say I don't blame them!
I'm not so sure I'd be so forgiving if they had cooly and calmly talked to me about how they were going to smack me - seems a bit like 1950's caining.
I certainly could not calculate and plan to smack my child a certain number of times, knowing that I have spoken to him about the behaviour, which hopefully would already have explained to him that whatever ihe did wasn't acceptable.
Also, the risk of lashing out isn't reduced by doing this as where do the boundaries lie as to what action deserves hoiw many smacks? If you were in a really fowl mood, you could say that a particular action from a child warrants 7 smacks. Whereas on a day you weren't feeling so shitty, the same actions would only be worth 1 smack, iyswim?!
I'm not condoning lashing out in anger either but it seems to be a more human flaw, rather than plotting to hurt your child for whatever the reason.
Whether this thread is real or not it certainly has us talking! Could someone please explain to me what cod is though? I feel really dumb but I guess it means that the thread is just a joke to get us angry right? Why would someone do that? Am I really thick?!! (Please don't answer that!)