What are your thoughts on smacking children?

Question

Is it right or wrong?

I personally was smacked as a child and it didn't do me any harm and it certainly made me behave.

I was never fearful of my parents and I respected the fact that if I was naughty, I was going to get punished.

Answer 1

I see nothing wrong with a small spanking from time to time. I was spanked every so often when I was a child and I am NOWHERE near being a criminal. I am actually in my second year of medical school. I don't agree with people who use belts or sticks to beat their children. I think that this should be done with the hand so that the parent can gauge how hard they are going to hit the child and so that the parent can feel it as well. I think that it's precisely because children are being liberated so much that we are having so many problems with delinquency... time out alone doesn't work. Time out should be incorporated... in fact, i think that that should be the front line treatment. But if a child keeps misbehaving, the OCCASIONAL spanking will work. If it's done too often, the child will become immune to them and it won't work... but the occasional spank is just fine by me.

Answer 2

Everytime I got smacked I thought to myself as a child 'why did you have to do that? Why couldn't you just talk to me?' This may not be the way most children think (but I wasn't like most children anyway) so I think it depends on the kids and how they respond to their parents. With me, a few reasonable words would have got a lot further than a smack. I think that this day and age smacking in not the best way. Kids now have possessions that they couldn't live without. When I was a kid, we didn't have playstations, own t.v., 24-hour childrens channels, mobile phones or anything like that. So, equally, we had nothing to lose. Today's kids however have a lot to lose if they don't behave. Confiscate their sacred possessions and see how effective that will be. I think it's all about teaching them a lesson. You can also deprive them of crisps, ice cream, sweets and pop when they misbehave, maybe not having so much sugar in their bodies will calm them down a bit anyway. But I think we don't need laws to tell the difference between smacking and child abuse, I think we are intelligent enough to be able to tell the difference.

Answer 3

Yes, there is a lot we had when we were little that people now think it's bad and one of them is a smack on the bottom. I think a smack on the bottom could help a lot of these unruly kids out there. Parents have no control anymore without someone saying or reporting the parent. What about the child that is so out of hand and then turns to the parent and says you can't do anything I'll report you. I've heard that a lot. So, go ahead, don't beat the kid, but a small smack couldn't hurt. Hey, it could help sometimes.

Answer 4

As as young girl I was smacked if I did something wrong. It certainly made me think twice, I Knew what the punishment would be. I was not afraid of my parents and I did or do not consider it being abused. In those times it was the way parents disciplined us. Since then we have learned more effective ways to control unwanted behavior, such as grounding, taking away privileges, which is what I do use when restricting unwanted behavior in my Grandchildren who live with me. Even though some times I do think a good spanking would work just as well, I do not resort to that.

Answer 5

I was smacked as a child, most times it was several times a day. I was not fearful of my parents, and smacking me didn't make me fearful. I was more scared of being grounded and not allowed out to my friends. lol.

I have 3 times spanked my eldest and 2 times my youngest for the most severe disrespectful thing they've done. They are 14 and 11, which I'd say for all the spankings they've received, that is exceptional.

I agree with corporal punishment, IF and ONLY IF it fits the crime. I DO NOT agree with time-outs. That is the most useless form of discipline I've ever seen. Once my children turned 6 I did not spank, ground or give them time-outs. I talked to them like adults (in little words for their understanding), explained their wrong behaviour, and got them to be involved in their disciplinarian decisions............and this has worked out great. Both are very well-behaved, both top 5 of their classes in school, both into sports and both help me around the house without being asked.

Answer 6

This debate drives me nuts!! I was never smacked as a child and yet I was fearful of my parents and was quiet for fear of being construed as naughty!
I believe that a smack is not wrong. I agree with previous comments that depriving the child of family interaction, and constant scolding is far more damaging.
Again I agree that a smack should be clearly defined as an OPEN hand slap, not a fist, grabbing, pulling hair, punching or biting.

Answer 7

The very way you word the questions worries me a little. "smacking" just sounds angry to me. I was spanked a few times as a child, but it was reserved for certain things. I have 3 kids and have probably used spanking on them a dozen or so times in their lives. As long as it is not in a fit of anger, and that it is seldom. The key is that I started when they were small, and so they knew that the possibility was there, and so I hardly ever had to do it. I think once they are past a certain age, like 6 or 7 you are done. Then it means that it hasnt worked really. You have to do it with love and not in anger and not inconsistently. Kids to to have clear boundaries, you cant just smack them one day for something they got away with yesterday. Please do this very carefully.

Answer 8

This is a difficult question being a parent of 3 children it takes a lot to admit you smack your kids these days but what people have got to understand is that there is a big difference to beating a child to a tap on the hand or smacked bottom i give my children loads of warnings that they will be punished for misbehaving and most of the time i never follow it through but they know its serious if if do smack them and they dont continue their misbhaving then. My brothers and myself were smacked as children but my father was really strict with us and we did fear him i grew to hate him and still do in a way but he did punish us with a belt or slipper and i would never dream of doing this to mine

Answer 9

That is why they have a butt. Not the face or anywhere else and not with boards or razor straps. Since the spanking is abuse crowd has raised their ugly heads juvenile crime has risen faster than courts can keep up. A question back, If you don't believe in spanking what do you do with a child when you give them a time out and they say no. Take away the TV and they turn it on anyway. Ground them and they walk out of the house. Have a counselor for every child? Therapy? Look at the violence in schools. Reality is was I afraid of my parents, no, was I afraid to push them too far, yes. And not because they were going to give me a time out. That would have made me laugh. By the way I am in law enforcement. We constantly deal with Juveniles who are always telling us and their parents "you can't hit us" They have no fear of consequences to their actions

Answer 10

I feel that spankings should be used as a last resort only. I work through all of the basics, time out, toys and priveledges taken away first. If the child continues to press on, then they are spanked. I do have one that is Developmentally Delayed and I can whoop his butt for 10 min and he doesnt understand the meaning. So I have to use the old saying that every child is different and they all get different punishments for their wrong doings.