Smacking kids?

[LucyB03]

Is it ever right to physically punish a child as part of discipline in the home? I'm doing a school project on corporal punishment of children and would be super interested in parent's views on this topic :)

What specific questions do you want answered.

What level and subject is this for?

Personally I am 100% against any kind of physical punishment.

I'm sure any parent who is happy to smack their child would be less happy about someone bigger and stronger than them giving them a smack.

No. I teach my child not to hit or punch, so it's hypocritical to ever hit or smack them.

I was smacked a lot as a child and have very bad memories of those experiences. I do appreciate times have changed, but I wouldn't want to inflict that on my child.

No. Never.

You won't get a yes on here. Those who do will just scroll on by. (Unless they're up for a big argument on here and are ready for a name change.)

You won't get a yes on here

There have been threads very recently with posters defending a mum who hit her child.

I was smacked as a kid on rare occasions and I smacked my kids when they were younger when necessary

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a3700987-To-have-hit-her-on-the-back-of-the-leg-with-my-hairbrush?msg_id=90332327#90332327

Here is one of the ones I was thinking if.

When is snacking “necessary” @Bishbosh84?

Sorry, smacking. Snacking is always necessary.

@00100001 This is for my Extended Project Qualification - the title is 'Is corporal punishment an appropriate form of punishment for children?' - I'm asking specifically about corporal punishment in the home here because it seems most relevant and finding anyone who can justify hitting children in school or as young offenders seems unlikely on a modern day UK chat forum.

@PurpleDaisies thanks a lot this is really helpful to me - I need to get opinions from both sides of the argument and have been struggling to find people pro corporal punishment online.

It's a huge subject. I was smacked as a child. I didn't smack my children, I used timeout/thinking time instead.

Personally, I think the way both of these were used in my life were fine and both can be incredibly harmful if misused. Whatever discipline is used, the most important thing is that it is founded in love, applied consistently and sparingly. Any "punishment" that has to be used frequently isn't working.

I didn't smack more because it was frowned upon than because I thought it was harmful.

There are people out there who will defend it but they are thankfully, not the majority. None of my peers condone it. It is abhorrent.

Id say that if adults in charge of children in a professional/voluntary setting aren't allowed to smack/hit children, because the laws prevents this. then it is a bit odd that's the law allows parents to smack/hit their own children.

I'm sure there are studies that show that physical punishment doesn't work.

I was smacked as a child. I don't smack my children.
I dont agree with it.

I don't agree with it and don't do it.

There was some interesting research which you could try to find. It was about communities in which it was a regular occurrence. They found that in communities with a 'tradition' of smacking when it was regular, condoned and the norm, it was less damaging psychologically than when it was a rare one-off in anger, unusual and not the norm.

Which is why I think it's interesting that people defend it based on their own childhood. It was normal then, it's not now so don't do it.

No never. There are other more effective ways to deal with bad behaviour. It is absolutely never ok to hit a child, they don't understand why a grown up who they trust would cause them physical pain. Just awful.