Smacking kids

[mantra]

Australia is probably going to make it illegal to smack your children, although it will be difficult to monitor. Discipline and guidance isn't supposed to be anger driven and usually parents hit their kids in anger, but there are exceptions. I saw an English documentary on a mother who followed her toddler around the room smacking his hand every 5 seconds and it was nasty. She was inciting violence in her baby.

If a new law can encourage parents to talk to their children, rather than smack them - it's a good thing.

SMACKING kids can be tantamount to child abuse and should be banned in Australia, the nation's leading paediatricians said yesterday.

Dr Gervase Chaney, the head of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians' Paediatric & Child Health Division, said it was no longer OK for mums and dads to argue "that it never did us any harm" and called on colleagues to stand up for children's rights.

And Professor Frank Oberklaid, a paediatrician from Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, said Australia was lagging behind other countries in outlawing smacking which, in some cases, could lead to abuse and even death.

In a letter published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, Dr Chaney wrote: "We cannot keep going on with the argument that it was OK for our generation as children (or that of our parents) and 'it never did us any harm'. It is up to us as paediatricians to make the issue about children and their rights and advocate for their now and their future."

Dr Chaney said he believed the college's position, opposing the use of physical discipline as an "ineffective and unhelpful" method of punishing children, did not go far enough: "There has been good evidence that in countries where it has been banned there is a reduction in child abuse.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/p ... 6261323795

[Outlaw Yogi]

On the one hand I say belting kids tells the child 'it's OK for me to hit you if I don't like what you do, be cause I'm bigger than you' .. but then some kids need a good smack across the face, because some individuals don't respond to or understand anything else.

My ex's daughter had a kid at 17. At age 4-5 he continually had 2 young women (his mother and aunt) threatening and disciplining him.
I told them "When he gets bigger, he's going to bash your head in".

[mantra]

On the one hand I say belting kids tells the child 'it's OK for me to hit you if I don't like what you do, be cause I'm bigger than you' .. but then some kids need a good smack across the face, because some individuals don't respond to or understand anything else.

My ex's daughter had a kid at 17. At age 4-5 he continually had 2 young women (his mother and aunt) threatening and disciplining him.
I told them "When he gets bigger, he's going to bash your head in".

I've seen and heard some cruel things some mothers (and fathers) do to their kids. Kids need to be taught that hitting someone isn't acceptable, but you can't do that unless you set an example.

When you hear someone talking about hating their parents, you usually think they've been the product of beatings. Obviously in some cases it's the other way around and the parents have been too slack.

"When he gets bigger, he's going to bash your head in".

There was a story the other day about a teenager whose mother had a restraining order out against him. He went back and bashed a big hole in her wall and was arrested again. She went wrong somewhere.

[Black Orchid]

I don't think there is anything wrong with a light smack on the bum. More noise than hurt. But some parents obviously don't know where to draw the line.

Slapping a child across the face is very wrong and anyone who does that would probably be quite capable of worse behaviour

Verbal/emotional abuse and demeaning of children is psychologically just as damaging as physical abuse. Maybe more so. I don't think laws are going to change learned behaviour though. Some good parents will get reported for a smack on the bum whilst other more dangerous abusers will fall between the cracks.

Education of those at risk would probably be more helpful but that is probably an impossible task too. Maybe all maternity wards should have a compulsory education program where parents are armed with knowledge and know where to seek help if they feel unable to cope

[boxy]

SMACKING kids can be tantamount to child abuse and should be banned in Australia, the nation's leading paediatricians said yesterday.

From the expert calling for a ban. Notice the word "can" in there. Yeah. That means that it depends on the situation.

You know what I think? Some parents are useless cu.nts, who make themselves feel better by picking on their own kids. But an across the board ban on smacking wont stop the harm, because cu.nts are flexible, and physical harm is just a small part of their arsenal of douchebaggery.

Some people just shouldn't have control over children, ever.