Ban on corporal punishment towards children

Why would it be ok to hit the most vulnerable people around us? Barbaric. It should be illegal. As should other kinds of physical (or mental) assault on a child or anyone else.

Romola, I’m sorry you were subjected to frightening and abusive behaviour. Your point about shaking is a good one. Shaking an infant can kill the child.
Shaking may not leave marks yet is in the same league as beating imo
Any police/social work investigation would identify it as abuse

knspol

I actually thought it was already banned in the UK. Agree that children should not be smacked but the people who abuse children aren't going to stop because of a smacking ban and the rest of us would probably never smack anyway.

I thought that too, but evidently not. Certainly it was banned in schools by the end of the last century.

I was a cheeky child and got quite a few clips round the ear from my mother. I was more scared of my father, who would grab me and shake me really hard. I couldn't get away and I never trusted him.
What about banning shaking?

I actually thought it was already banned in the UK. Agree that children should not be smacked but the people who abuse children aren't going to stop because of a smacking ban and the rest of us would probably never smack anyway.

The beatings I got from my father as a child turned me completely against the stifling claustrophobia of so called family life, where some of the darkest crimes occur. I have a very bad temper and could never gaurantee that I would not beat my children in the same way that my father had beaten me. I could never gaurantee that I would not love one more than the other and show it.

It a way my father did me a favour. He taught me about the kind of parent I did not wish to become.

It is shameful that it hasn't been made illegal in England.
If I'd realised they my now ex husband had been smacked so much by his father I'd not have had anything more to do with him after the first time he hit me that was the only thing he knew if someone disagreed with him or did something he had preferred they didn't.

Grams2five

As it should be. As some have pointed out good parents don’t need to be told not to smack their children. But most people don’t need to be told not to commit murder or robbery either and get we have laws against it. Smacking is wrong
And anyone who defends it should think twice

Excellent post.

Banning all smacking/ hitting/ beating/ swatting is well past overdue. Corporal punishment is wrong - really always has been.

A no smacking would certainly mean an end to blurred lines and I am all for it. As a child, my mother would hit us with anything she could lay her hands on and would say her discipline did us no harm. It did. It made me frightened of her and it didn't take long for me to hate her. By the age of 5 I just wanted to get away from her. As an adult I can see she was really damaged but she damaged me too.

Excellent comparisons Grams2five.
Parents, teachers, adults, grandparents, we all have a responsibility to be good role models. Managing our feelings in a healthy way is part of that. Children learn by example. Luckily, many posters who were ‘smacked’ decided what they learned was not to repeat the behaviiur

As it should be. As some have pointed out good parents don’t need to be told not to smack their children. But most people don’t need to be told not to commit murder or robbery either and get we have laws against it. Smacking is wrong
And anyone who defends it should think twice

Banning smacking will ban all smacking. Banging a child's head against a door or a wall and what happened to Sara Sharif isn't smacking so has no place in a this discussion.

They need to ban all smacking because all smacking is child abuse.

You cannot compare a smack which by definition is a sharp slap or blow, typically given with the palm of a hand and banging someone's head against a door.

Any sensible discussion about banning smacking needs to focus on smacking. Bringing in other examples of physical 'punishment' only serves IMO to muddy the waters.

It doesn't matter how you hurt a child you are still hurting them. It doesn't ever make sense for hitting with a hand to be ok but a door not to be.

I was smacked and I did smack my children on the rare occasion which I bitterly regret. It should be banned. My GC have never been smacked.

I agree MissA. Smacking, whether we agree with it or not is not the same as banging a child's head against a wall.

What a lot of you are talking about isn't smacking, is it?
What your parents did was abuse you.

That's a very good point Iam. If abused children are also being home schooled there's little if any opportunity for this to be detected.

My mother’s answer to everything was a good smacking a lot more than once . I remember he once holding my shoulders and banging my head against the kitchen door. I have NEVER smacked any of my children as I would never have done to them what my mother did .

All smacking teaches children is adults have more power . Control your anger, it is never acceptable to hurt children in any circumstances.

Smacking must be banned. It does no good and can do emotional and physical harm.

The case for banning smacking has little to do with Sarah Sharif. Her father left a note indicating she died after he legally punished her. Absolute nonsense, she had multiple fractures as well as too many injuries for the pathologist to count. She was tortured and murdered. One thing that does need to be considered is the right of parents to home school. I realise many children thrive when home schooled but this child was removed from school to keep authorities away. This isn’t unknown

I agree theworriedwell that using the tragic and brutal death of that poor girl in this particular discussion is inappropriate.

My mum was quite smack happy and she usually hit me across the face. I remember she did this one Christmas morning when I was about 9. I was quietly watching an old black and white film whilst she and dad were arguing in the kitchen which was standard. She came storming into the sitting room and walloped me. It took my breath away. I asked what I had done and she said she thought I was drunk! I don't think any laws would have prevented such unhinged behaviour but I suppose she might have thought twice. She liked to keep up appearances.

I see and hear toddlers having major meltdowns; at least 3 times every day where I work, some literally screaming the place down for ages (it hurts my throat just listening to it) I wear a headset anyway but I think you learn to tune it out.

As recently as twenty years ago the parent would have felt the need to react in some physical way, or by shouting at the child.
I never see anything like this now, they just leave them to get on with it.
So attitudes do change if there is general disapproval - as they have over time with smoking and the wearing of car seat belts.
However there is very little advice for parents out there on what you should do in any given circumstance.
The challenges are many and they are constantly changing from toddlerhood to age 18.

Just seems like a spectrum of torture to me. A little bit or a lot.