Right into the Eurosceptics hands regarding smacking

[woodmally]

I don't think anyone who hits a child thinks.."you'll never get a job and will always be in trouble with the police". They hit because they don't have the ability to communicate or are to lazy to communicate or how to, which as BC states, you're probably not fit as a parent. It's a standard response from those who've been hit as an infant...did me no harm, I never went to prison.

 

Ok you could argue lazy or you could argue well it works doesnt it. My understanding of why people are arguing for smacking to be stopped is that it does do harm to the child. Yet anecdotal evidence from many people brought up in the 60s through to the early 80s is that there has never been a problem with it. I didnt feel abused neither did many others. So it does work as a deterrent. So if it does work why stop it for those that do. Thats not to say other methods dont work either it should be up to the parent thats all.

[skinz]

Ok you could argue lazy or you could argue well it works doesnt it. My understanding of why people are arguing for smacking to be stopped is that it does do harm to the child. Yet anecdotal evidence from many people brought up in the 60s through to the early 80s is that there has never been a problem with it. I didnt feel abused neither did many others. So it does work as a deterrent. So if it does work why stop it for those that do. Thats not to say other methods dont work either it should be up to the parent thats all.

 

So does good parenting without any form of physical contact..it just takes work.

 

I'm not sure the 60's is a good barometer. One parent may think that a tap on the bottom is good guidance, another may think that a baseball bat may be equally so..leaving the parent to decide which is more appropriate is dangerous, considering how dangerous adults can be. Logically would the child not have the right to retaliate, physically?

[tzijlstra]

Firstly, this is not the EU, this is another institute, the Council of Europe - this has nothing to do with the EU.

 

Secondly: "The ruling follows a complaint by a British children's charity against France and six other EU countries."

 

That gives you a clue as to where the problem originates.

 

---------- Post added 04-03-2015 at 12:37 ----------

 

I've read the same article as you, and it says that it is Approach, a British charity, which has complained to the EU that France and 6 other EU countries have not done enough (in statutory terms) to ban smacking, and that the Council for Europe agrees.

 

So...why did you leave the British charity Approach out of your rant?

 

And why is a British charity (presumably concerned with British-residing kids) complaining about France and other EU countries?

 

Just to repeat, they haven't complained to the EU they have complained to the CoE.

[barleycorn]

Ok you could argue lazy or you could argue well it works doesnt it. My understanding of why people are arguing for smacking to be stopped is that it does do harm to the child.

Why do you think harming children is OK?

Yet anecdotal evidence from many people brought up in the 60s through to the early 80s is that there has never been a problem with it.

So nobody born in the 60s who was smacked as child ever went on to commit a crime etc?

I didnt feel abused neither did many others.

So? One parents smack is another parents whack with a a cricket bat.

So it does work as a deterrent. So if it does work why stop it for those that do.

You haven't shown that it does work. The populations of our prisons would seem to indicate that it does not.

Thats not to say other methods dont work either it should be up to the parent thats all.

Should it? What if a parent thinks a suitable deterrent is tying their child up and starving them in the cellar for a week? Or stubbing fags out on them? Or punching them in the head?

 

Also, you have yet to reply to post 9.

 

jb

[charmer]

I'm not a parent as it happens I just cannot understand the who ha about smacking as I was smacked when I was a kid. My OH was too as was many people and we have never been in trouble with the law and always been in work. I think parenting should be left to the parent, Some parents chose the naughty step others choose smacking. You even look at the animal kingdom its used by the parents to control their young.

 

I just get fed up with the amount of government interference in daily lives.

 

Should I be able to physically punish you if you do something that I don't like? Even if it isn't against the law? What about the Police (an authority over you).

 

Are you advocating an individuals right to commit assault on a certain (vulnerable) section of society at the whim of the authority figure?

[skinz]

There's a gulf of ambiguity between tapping a child and bouncing it off four walls. There is no ambiguity in a law which states you do not physically assault your child in any way, or any other child for that matter. Seems silly in this day and age we 're discussing one law for children which already exists for adults as two seperates. Children are not our property to do as we wish.

[truman]

There's a gulf of ambiguity between tapping a child and bouncing it off four walls. There is no ambiguity in a law which states you do not physically assault your child in any way, or any other child for that matter. Seems silly in this day and age we 're discussing one law for children which already exists for adults as two seperates. Children are not our property to do as we wish.

 

So if my kid was attempting to put his hand onto an electric bar fire I couldn't pull him away? How about shouting at him ...isn't that assault?

Edited March 4, 2015 by truman

[Guest]

...I have no idea on which side of this argument I fully stand, and probably won't until I have kids of my own.

 

Exactly there is two sides to the argument and you wont know till your a parent. Spot on. There is no manual for parenting. So why should government dictate how parents parent for want of a better word.

Just as you don't become an expert in immunology and paediatric medicine when you give birth (despite what many of the anti-vaccination lot will have you believe), neither do you get the keys to the Secret Library of All Things Parenting (strictly no entry to the childless). While you probably do need the advantage of practical experience to, for example, quickly and efficiently attach a nappy to a screaming baby, you should be able to assess the role of physical punishment in child-rearing from a child-free position.

 

I think in this context having a child will soon let you know your degree of susceptibility to the frustration which often results in a tantruming toddler getting a smack rather than being dealt with by non-physical means.

 

---------- Post added 04-03-2015 at 13:44 ----------

 

So if my kid was attempting to put his hand onto an electric bar fire I couldn't pull him away? How about shouting at him isn't that assault?

Let's see now. That's a real toughie...

[skinz]

So if my kid was attempting to put his hand onto an electric bar fire I couldn't pull him away? How about shouting at him ...isn't that assault?

 

Nothing wrong with raising your voice IMO. We are discussing physical though.

[truman]

Nothing wrong with raising your voice IMO. We are discussing physical though.

 

So emotianal trauma is somehow less than the physical kind? Just playing Devil's advocate..our kids are grown up now so we're way past the smacking bit