How do you feel about a law banning the smacking of children? This is likely to become law in New Zealand, despite there being a majority of the public against the bill.

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• excellent point +pts

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  by steelhamster@aol.com on April 1st, 2007

• Child has screwdriver, child is about to put screwdriver in power-socket, or somewhere else dangerous. The instinct is to pull them away and hit them, so they remember not to do it again. It's not as though you can reason with a toddler.

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  by Anonymous on April 1st, 2007

• You can use a firm voice and move them away, you dont have to have a deep intimate conversation

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  by steelhamster@aol.com on April 2nd, 2007

• Good point liz. And when I was a kid, I listened more to my mother's warnings because she would explain to me exactly what was at risk of happening to me, the horrible truth, if I did certain things and the shocking thought of that kept me away.

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  by The Sun on November 6th, 2007

• Not every child responds to talking......for those that are more hard headed you have to employ a compelling consequence. Not all kids will respond to time outs or loss of privledges either.....discipline in the way of spanking is an option that works for (most) unruly children.
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  It's not abuse if you stop at the place where they becomed compelled. For each child that varies. A more stubborn child has no one but himself to blame if he acquires a red bottom. Love means doing what is in a persons best interest, stopping a bad practice before it becomes an ingrained bad habit. I for one am thankful I had parents that cared enough to discipline me when I acted inappropriately.

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  by resident for good on July 21st, 2009

• What was a child to young to reason with doing with a screw driver in the first place? Perhaps we should spank the parents.

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  by Gingerminx on July 21st, 2009

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• Really? I was more afraid of a spanking then a lecture. Less pain, you see. It never taught me that it solved problems, it taught me that I cannot do this because it is bad (parents gave me a lecture beforehand, explaining why I was getting it, making sure that I understood, what to do next time, and that this does not mean that they do not love me, etc.) and that I will be punished if I do it, which is true. In the real world, as an adult, if I did something bad, they law punishes you. And it never crossed the line of abuse, they never came near it. They never used implements, and never bare-bottom. It was probably maximum 10 swats, it put me in my place, but never scarred me physically of mentally. Obviously someone who has been abused, however, would have a much different view on this.

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009

• Well the fact that you now advocate smacking surely proves that you believe corporal punishment is the answer to misbehaviour? And this was reinforced by your experience.

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  by steelhamster@aol.com on October 1st, 2009

• No, I don't think it's the answer to everything, but for some types of kids I believe it works better than other things. I was quiet, and although I have been grounded before, I much preferred reading and staying inside to going outside, and it did work sometimes, but it all around didn't bug me that much to be grounded. Just wondering, were you ever smacked as a kid? You can't judge it until it's happened to you. My sister, on the other hand, was an over-active hiper kid, and she spent tons of time outside, and a grounding was like hell for her, although she also got smacked too occasionally. But corporal punishment is used in our world today still. For example, if police officers could not use violence, how would they control criminals? If you use it very spairingly, and in balance with other punishments, not as your main punishment, then it can be very effective.

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  by Jessica on October 14th, 2009

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• It's weird how people think that seeing naked breasts can harm children more than watching extreme violence in cinemas.

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  by Halskiisaklink on November 6th, 2007

• America embraces violence and is embarassed by sexuality.

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  by Marrisa on November 6th, 2007

• America is sexually imature without a doubt!! And we do seem to have that cowboy attitude as seen with Bush. We are a crazy lot, I'll tell you what!

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  by macdjug-Paxvobiscum on November 6th, 2007

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• Agreed with this. The law needs to stop trying to teach us how to control our kids. It worked in the mid to late 19's, didn't it? Now that they are restricting it, suddenly kids, or their parents, don't care about education, and the jail's are much fuller? Doesn't add up. Obviously beating is not allowed. Why don't they just restrict how the spanking should be delivered. for example, no implements/weapons should be used on the child. (hairbrush, switch, etc.) No more than x number of swats in a single punishment. No hitting in certain area's. (List the area's.)

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009

• I don't believe that parents should use implements anyways, it's dangerous and unnecessary. But what are you going to do to a child who runs into a busy road? Put them in time out at home? Fat chance. That would of NEVER worked on my sister, who was an overactive child, she wouldn't of given a damn about time out, that's a joke! Most parents would just do it at home, behind closed doors, anyways. You'd need security camera's in their homes, which is just ever so slightly stalker-ish, and creepy. And to all the people who say that it teaches them violence is right? Sure, if you use it excessively, as your main punishment. I was probably spanked 2, maybe 3 times in my whole life, as far as I can remember, and they never went past the age of 7. If you teach your kids the right things, and show them right from wrong, then they should not be thinking these things.

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009

• And I swear, some people must think that kids are stupid. "They don't understand what they're doing wrong! It's not fair to them!" Haha, me and my sister knew exactly what we were trying to do wasn't allowed, we just did it anyways for the fun of it, until we learned not to, even at age 2. And to be quite honest, all my spankings I deserved, definitely. They were never abuse, never. I love my parents, and have never feared them in my life! Looking at it, there's my friends who I know were spanked as a young kid, and the ones who weren't, and I can see that, in general, the ones who were spanked have much more respect for their parents compared to the ones who weren't, and wouldn't dare disrespect an adult. I'm not saying people who weren't spanked do this, because all kids are different and some don't fear physical pain, some don't care about being smacked, but the law needs to let parents do their thing, as long as it doesn't cross abuse. They don't have to deal with our kids, We do!

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009

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• My teacher who grew up in the sixties said that she remembered, back in grade 1, that the teacher would ask everyone to write a letter a, b, or c, when they were learning the alphabet, and as they moved further on and all the kids wrote the letters on their sheets, after each letter, she would check their work and how they wrote that. If it was too messy, or didn't look exactly how she thought it should, she would tell them to start over, and would tell them to take out their hands, and would hit them with a ruler twice, maybe three times, to teach them to write properly! Teachers can be quite cruel. That's just unfair, especially to 6 year olds who are just learning.

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009

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• smacking your child because they're doing something wrong is not abuse.

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  by Hardcore Conservative on August 5th, 2009

• Just curious, what is your definition of abuse Lil Mama? It seems to be different from many others.

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009

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• You could spank them now, and people would say you are a bad parent, and should not be doing that. Or, you could not use cp, and not teach them right from wrong correctly, and be bailing them out of jail later on, and people would say you didn't discipline and raise them correctly. There's just no way around the dislike and opinions. You might just have to deal with the fact that some people might not agree with your choice of discipline, unfortunately.

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  by Jessica on September 6th, 2009