Smacking Children

Bold Seagull said:

I honestly believe no human being needs to be disciplined through physical punishment of any kind during their upbringing. I totally agree there is a significant problem with some of our 'youth' but this could be as easily attributed to violence in the home as to a lack of effective parenting. Each child does respond to different things, but one thing is for sure, statistically at least, violence breeds violence, and don't delude yourselves, a smack is a violent act however you dress it up as 'gentle' or 'careful' or 'otherwise'.

fine and you are entitled to your view, but dont delude yourself that every one who was ever smacked as a child has an ASBO or criminal record. To tie smacking children to the vast social problems faced by a section of our society is bonkers.. I would suggest there are many other factors at work, some of which are likely to have more of an impact in many cases on the resultant behaviours by these 'youths'.

I presume the article you quote is written by a recognised expert in this field, not another bored guardian journalist on a crusade......

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Viney said:

So if you believe that parent can/should smack their kids. Does that mean you think teachers should be able to also?

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Igor Gurinovich? said:

I presume the article you quote is written by a recognised expert in this field, not another bored guardian journalist on a crusade......

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Bold Seagull said:

I honestly believe no human being needs to be disciplined through physical punishment of any kind during their upbringing. I totally agree there is a significant problem with some of our 'youth' but this could be as easily attributed to violence in the home as to a lack of effective parenting. Each child does respond to different things, but one thing is for sure, statistically at least, violence breeds violence, and don't delude yourselves, a smack is a violent act however you dress it up as 'gentle' or 'careful' or 'otherwise'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/oct/25/violencebegetsviolence

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CaptainDaveUK said:

When I was a kid I did something naughty and my dad said you can have a smack or miss match of the day! I remember being genuinely sorry and I opted for a smack. I then probably cried for two minutes, said I was sorry and then stayed up and watched match of the day with my dad. Withdrawing treats etc. draws out the discipline process and can breed resentment rather than remorse. I'm not saying I wouldn't withdraw a treat as you can't reward bad behaviour but I think that smacking can be more effective both in stopping the bad / dangerous behaviour and creating a close, loving relationship within a family.

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bushy said:

You are, it may not be physical threats, but your snide remarks and superior , sneering attitude are distinctly unpleasant.

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Bold Seagull said:

It's just an opinion like any other on this board which you can either agree, or disagree with as you please.

I haven't tied social problems to smacking child, if you read the posts I was countering the argument that some of our social problems are caused 'because' parents are not smacking their children. Also, where have I eluded to anybody smacking a child being a criminal? If you are going to twist someone's words, at least try to do it with some sublty!

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bushy said:

The guardian and the sort of twots who write for it/read it are the root cause of a lot of the social problems this country has.

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Acker79 said:

Which brings up another stage in this debate... Abuse doesn't have to be physical to be abuse. Aren't all attempts to discipline kids in some way abuse? Taking their things, restricitng their freedoms, etc.

If smacking a child is teaching them violence is a way to solve problems, is sending them to their room teaching them locking someone up solves problems? Is taking their toys away teaching them that taking other people's possessions solves problems?

It's a nice idea that violence is never the answer, but what about when it is? Wars are fought because one side won't listen.At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, would we really have been able to use talking to avoid world war 2? Did Hitler just need to be reasoned with? Or was violence the only avenue we had?

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Bold Seagull said:

The root cause of a lot of our social problems of this country is a newspaper whose sales rarely top 300,000!? The UK, with a population of 66m can attribute the root cause of a lot of it's social problems to a paper that on average 300,000 people buy. That's 0.5% of the population.

The Daily Mail has daily sales of about 2.1m as a comparison.

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Acker79 said:

Did Hitler just need to be reasoned with? Or was violence the only avenue we had?

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Bold Seagull said:

The root cause of a lot of our social problems of this country is a newspaper whose sales rarely top 300,000!? The UK, with a population of 66m can attribute the root cause of a lot of it's social problems to a paper that on average 300,000 people buy. That's 0.5% of the population.

The Daily Mail has daily sales of about 2.1m as a comparison.

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Igor Gurinovich? said:

Fair enough BS, i misread your original comment.

Though i dont think its twisting your words to challenge your point that 'statistically violence breeds violence.' Feel free to share the evidence...

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Cheeky Monkey said:

Jesus, that must be some fu*ked up family dynamic you've got going on there if that's a view you honestly hold.

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sydney said:

if you look at a newspaper as a parents handbook , you are f***ed from the start..may as well have the opp. and take up breeding terrapins or ocelots or axylotyls .......FFS imagine if we all brought our kids up on the ethics espoused by the sun and screws of the world ....!!!

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CaptainDaveUK said:

When I was a kid I did something naughty and my dad said you can have a smack or miss match of the day! I remember being genuinely sorry and I opted for a smack. I then probably cried for two minutes, said I was sorry and then stayed up and watched match of the day with my dad.

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bushy said:

The guardian and the sort of twots who write for it/read it are the root cause of a lot of the social problems this country has.

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