Do you think it should be illegal to smack a child?

No

I believe child abuse should be, however smacking a child ensures they stop doing what is wrong and therefore learn to not do it, wheras things such as grounding is useless nowdays.

Nope

Mickle wrote:No

I believe child abuse should be, however smacking a child ensures they stop doing what is wrong and therefore learn to not do it, wheras things such as grounding is useless nowdays.

child abuse is illegal... just saying

>this
i have to laugh at people who are against smacking , my parents smacked me but i dont hate them , i dont have trust issues because of it , i didnt fear them but i darn sure respected them . I learned what my boundries were , and what would happen if i broke them; i wasnt abused, i was disaplined!
like if you've gotten a hiding & survived

This is a repost, not original.
Pretty much sums up my view on it.

Yeah, that one was going around FB

So if smacking is ok, what is your definition of a smack?

I dont think it should be illegal. How parents discipline their children should be their own choice. I was smacked and it taught me what was wrong as a child. But as I grew older it grew less and less. I never considered it to be abusive as it was only when i had done something really wrong. I personally would never smack my children as there can be better ways of dealing with things.

I define a smack as being hit on the backside or hand. Not a hard hit but something to make you realize that you have done something wrong. Pain shouldn't be associated with doing something wrong but perhaps humility.

Yeah I agree with James, except that I would smack my kids, especially at a young age because when I child is very young they are going to have a lot of tantrums and if you just tell them off verbally they probably won't understand it or take it seriously. Sure you can try things like time-out, but the kid will probably just see it as a game and continue to do it, especially if you have multiple children because they are obviously going to fight with each other and its your job as the parent to smack it out of them. Its the same as why we smack dogs because its the only way they will learn. I was smacked around a bit as a child as well by my parents when I would do something wrong and most of the time I would deserve and I will probably treat my children more or less the same, but when they start to grow into adults with common sense then I wouldn't smack them anymore, as the children grow there would be much more powerful ways to punish them, like depriving them of entertainment and friends and there are always the extremes of putting your child into a boarding school if they are psychotic, but you can't really deprive a toddler of tv enough for them to care about it, well I guess you could take away their toys lol.

Dogs don't understand smacking.

Haha well my dog understands very well.

I don't know about you emily, but general survival instinct tells me to avoid pain...

That's not it. Dogs and most animals can not piece together what you are yelling at them, why you are smacking them and their bad action. They just run away because they just don't want to be hit! They is why most animals will do the action again.

No, smacking is OK. It should be a last resort option but the idea of reasoning with a really young child is ridiculous, they don't have the experience and reasoning to see past their world imploding because they don't get a lolly. And there is a difference between a smack and beating a child black and blue.

Yep, well said. A small child won't see reason through words at times, that is when you can only show them reason using the back of your hand.