Guest post: Plaid Cymru - 'why we want to make smacking illegal'

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

Adults shouldn't hit children.

One might assume that this is an uncontroversial statement, but here in Wales, it's causing a storm of debate and lots of political squabbling.

I'm currently spearheading a campaign for the National Assembly for Wales to make physical punishment of children illegal – I want to change the law so that, if parents find themselves in court after being charged with common assault for hurting their children, they can't use the defence that their behaviour was a reasonable way to discipline their child.

This has been dubbed a ‘smacking ban’, but it's not about banning - it's about clarifying the law and sending a strong message about positive parenting.

The current law in the UK about physical punishment of children is pretty confusing. Since 2004, if anyone acting with parental responsibility is charged with either child abuse or causing actual bodily harm to a child, they can't use the defence of reasonable punishment – but those charged with common assault are still able to. A review of criminal cases a few years ago looked at a small number of these cases and found that they included serious assaults like punches, strangling, and slaps around the head. All the defendants avoided conviction.

As it stands, the law is poorly understood. Changing it to make all physical punishment of children illegal would send a clear message to parents and also to social workers, doctors, teachers and the police. Neighbours and other onlookers who may previously have paused before intervening in a situation where a child could be in danger would know the law is on their side: hitting a child is not acceptable.

The most persistent myth I encounter when advocating for a change in the law is that removing the reasonable punishment defence will criminalise parents, leading to chaos in the court system and a backlog of good parents being charged. This is nonsense. It won't increase prosecutions because the Crown Prosecution Service will follow the same guidelines it does now in choosing whether or not to get involved.

What it would do, however, is make it easier for the courts to convict and protect children when they're being hurt by those who are supposed to care for them. A panicked smack on the back of the legs after a child runs into traffic may not be something I would advocate, but the parent administering it would be no more likely to end up in court than they are now.

I should admit that I have not always felt this way. As a young mother I smacked my first child. I didn't smack his siblings born several years later, perhaps because I was a little older and more confident in my parenting abilities. My son is now a grown man with a family of his own, and a few months ago we talked about his approach to smacking his three children. His response was tough to hear: “no Mam, we decided we wouldn't hit our children because I want to be a better parent than you.”

This, for me, says it all. It's not that he thinks I was a bad parent. Rather, that he wants to be better. Changing the law on the physical punishment of children isn't about judging those in the past who smacked their kids. It's about progress, and it's about our society working to improve so that each generation of children has a better life than the one before.

I know that my son isn't alone. A UK government report found that the majority of the supporters of smacking are over fifty and that only 7% of parents under twenty five ever smack their children. Changing the law would help support a change in culture that is already well underway.

Of course, it would have to be accompanied by public education and support for parents, so they can find more effective ways to discipline their children. Those who work with parents report that the misconception of the law makes it harder to deliver positive parenting messages, and changing it could open up a healthy discussion about parenting in Wales and make us all more conscious of how we treat our children, too. This change is not about unduly interfering with parenting. It's about driving progress in Wales and keeping children safe.

[Catsize]

bigpigsmum, the inherent personalities of your respective children have nothing to do with their differences? All children who aren't smacked obviously grow up to be unruly and rude and those who are walloped are cherubs. Me thinks not.
Re:lions, the female allow the male lions to eat first. There is often nothing left for them. Perhaps we should do that too. And then there are the 'natural' rapes to which animals are subjected. And the spiders who eat their mates after mating... Just saying.... .
Rachel, I will check out the organisation, thank you.

[siblingrevelryagain]

I think that in arguments put forward along the lines of "what right has the nanny-state to tell us what to do" I would offer my Dad as an example.

As a man in his late 60's, he believes quite strongly that he is ok to drive after one/one and a half pints of beer. He was a young man in the 70's when it was perfectly acceptable and the done thing. It's only because of pressure and nagging from me and my Mom that he won't have any when driving - if it weren't illegal he would probably push his luck sometimes.

Now he is a kind, responsible and upstanding citizen, with strong morals and and Christian values. However, in this instance he is wrong and his actions could cause damage and harm if he were to be allowed to self regulate and make the decision based on his own motoring experience.

For me it's the same with smacking. Sometimes the so called 'nanny-state' has to legislate and ban things to make a clear distinction when something is wrong. That's what the experts (medical, legal professionals advising parliament) are there for.

And what speaks even louder to me are all those on this thread who have smacked or advocate smacking, each one has been in an uncontrolled, temper flared situation, so it's never about discipline but about anger and punishment for wrong-doing. Especially ironic are those who use it on an already violent child; complete double standard!
The word discipline is bandied about by people when what they really mean is punishment. Discipline comes from the word 'Disciple', which means to teach/to learn.

[nannieann]

This is all great but we need to improve parenting. I don't condone smacking but the original rationale for its use was to gently reprimand children who were too young to reason with. Children's behaviour has in general deteriorated over the last few decades. Criminalisation of a strategy that some parents use purely because they lack any other is not the way forward. Education in good parenting is.