Smacking your kids

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bluethrunthru

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I was smacked - smacked my lad twice as a nipper. Realised that it didn't work as he probably forgot in ten mins and an hour later I was still feeling like shit. Never touched my daughter. U have come around to thinking its assault and should not be tolerated.

www.bbc.co.uk

Protect children from smacking in England and Northern Ireland, say doctors

Physical punishment at home can have a lasting impact and end in abuse, children's doctors warn.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
We never smacked our children. It is primitive and wrong. Nevertheless, the idea that it should be a crime is bonkers. How do you enforce it? Will there be different grades of smacking? And so on. This proposal is part of modern government ignorance about the role of criminal law. Using it to send messages about disapproval is a misuse of political power. The Blair government created several thousand new crimes like this, but they are hardly ever charged today.
 
KS55 said:
We never smacked our children. It is primitive and wrong. Nevertheless, the idea that it should be a crime is bonkers. How do you enforce it? Will there be different grades of smacking? And so on. This proposal is part of modern government ignorance about the role of criminal law. Using it to send messages about disapproval is a misuse of political power. The Blair government created several thousand new crimes like this, but they are hardly ever charged today.
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Surely you could say the same about any abusive behaviour in the home? Arguably making it illegal is more about sending a message than actually prosecuting people for it

Having said that, I sort of agree. You'll create a situation where, for example, teachers are expected to report it if any kid mentions that their parent smacked them. After all, if it's a crime, you can't ignore it if you've got child protection responsibilities. Perhaps that's a good thing, I don't know. But I can't imagine the resources are there to deal with it.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
Surely you could say the same about any abusive behaviour in the home? Arguably making it illegal is more about sending a message than actually prosecuting people for it

Having said that, I sort of agree. You'll create a situation where, for example, teachers are expected to report it if any kid mentions that their parent smacked them. After all, if it's a crime, you can't ignore it if you've got child protection responsibilities. Perhaps that's a good thing, I don't know. But I can't imagine the resources are there to deal with it.
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Yes, but if such abuse reaches assault proportions, it is already a crime. Messaging is not the role of the criminal law and creating specific offences is so often just that.
 
KS55 said:
Yes, but if such abuse reaches assault proportions, it is already a crime. Messaging is not the role of the criminal law and creating specific offences is so often just that.
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Is there clear guidance on what constitutes assault when it comes to children though? If your boss smacked you at work, that would be assault. If a teacher smacks a child, they are prosecuted for assault. What we currently have is a situation where smacking children is a vaguely defined exception to the assault law when it's the parent doing it.
 
I'm With Stupid said:
Is there clear guidance on what constitutes assault when it comes to children though? If your boss smacked you at work, that would be assault. If a teacher smacks a child, they are prosecuted for assault. What we currently have is a situation where smacking children is a vaguely defined exception to the assault law when it's the parent doing it.
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I wouldn’t call it an exception. It is the de minimis rule in action. I agree it is not always clear at what point it reaches the level of assault. Evidence, evidence, such an awkward necessity, but superior to defining the offence to the minutest detail.
 
KS55 said:
I wouldn’t call it an exception. It is the de minimis rule in action.
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But it's not though, is it? Because if it was, then there would be no difference between a teacher or a parent. It's entirely based around the concept that 'parents should be able to decide how to discipline their child' and 60 years ago, the same was thought for teachers too. There is a legitimate defence of 'reasonable chastisement' that only applies for kids. So we do make specific exceptions for parents and kids that don't apply to any other group.
 
Literally could never imagine smacking my daughter. ]

She's my world. I mean it helps that she's good anyway.... but still
 
Got smacked plenty of times and usually deserved it imo. Think smacked my son twice and like others felt like shit after it.
 
My kids have had a small tap on the arse along with a raised voice as and when they required that shock when at an age, reasoning or trying to reason with them was futile given their age and maturity. Its happened on a small few occasions and I dont regret any of them. My first 2 boys are now 30 and 27 and are not scarred by it and neither are my 12 year old twins.

Parents have every right to bring their children up as they see fit so long as discipline is fair and obviously not child beating which for 99.9% of parents it isn’t, it’s them doing their very best to bring their children up the right way.
 
There is a whole lot of difference between kicking the shit out of children and discipline, fast forward 10 years and when teens are running rampant the question "Where are the parents?" will be asked and it's all the governments fault.

Society is fucked there is no common purpose and this stupidity doesn't make it any better.
 
mexico1970 said:
There is a whole lot of difference between kicking the shit out of children and discipline, fast forward 10 years and when teens are running rampant the question "Where are the parents?" will be asked and it's all the governments fault.

Society is fucked there is no common purpose and this stupidity doesn't make it any better.
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It’s just an extension of the de minimis
principle viz reasonable.
 
I was smacked on occasion and have smacked my boy when younger, not to hurt/hard by any stretch but more of a shock tactic.

I've did find out making him sit on the bottom stairs for a period of time worked much better.
 
KS55 said:
We never smacked our children. It is primitive and wrong. Nevertheless, the idea that it should be a crime is bonkers. How do you enforce it? Will there be different grades of smacking? And so on. This proposal is part of modern government ignorance about the role of criminal law. Using it to send messages about disapproval is a misuse of political power. The Blair government created several thousand new crimes like this, but they are hardly ever charged today.
Click to expand...

There was plenty like that said when it became law up here like what 5,6 years ago. And a part of me thought similar. But it now just is what it is, and is widely accepted and hasn't led to any real issues. It has probably encouraged more people to think about it and avoid it, more than it has outright scared them into not doing it for fear of consequence. As far as I have seen at least, there will be layers of course.
 
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Why smack them when a good belting is more effective.

I fear if this becomes law then we will have a new generation of young people and young adults who can't self-regulate and turn to drugs to solve their problems.
 
There is smacking and smacking. It can be a euphemism for 'damned good thrashing.' That's the problem, right there. Some parents have no control over their own anger.

The easiest solution is to ban it because, otherwise, you have to spell out what is OK, which is hard. Historically, the guideline has been 'reasonable.' In Victorian times that would have been anything up to a moderate birching. It's all a bit imprecise and hard to pin down.
 
I was never smacked, but then again I was a well behaved kid who was brought up to have respect and manners by good parents.

Mrs mars bar and I don't have kids but if we did we wouldn't smack them.

Having said that there's some feral little gobby twats out there who are begging for a smack who've clearly been brought up by other feral useless dregs of society.

Dickheads breed, and that's the problem.
 
My dad is one of ten, if one of them was naughty and didn't fess up my grandad would line them all up and give em a crack, so he knew he got the right one hahaha.
 
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