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April 18, 2007

Anti-smacking?

We are witnessing heated debates about child rearing in the local media. The Beehive (NZ Government) is about to pass the bill (amendment to the existing law) making smacking a child illegal. Until now the law said something in the line "a parent can use reasonable force to correct child's behaviour or protect him/her from danger".

The reason for that is the horrific NZ children wellbeing (or lack of wellbeing reported by Unicef. Apparently NZ ranks 25th out of 25 developed countries in the number of our children who die from accident and injury). Several cases of violent parents haggling over "reasonable force" in courts caused the Green party to propose the bill (and be suported by majority Labour party) that instead of defining "reasonable force" outlaws any use of physical force against children.

Newspaper pages are full of letters arguing that "we've been smacked and we turned all right" and protesting against Government interfering with the daily family lives, foreseeing police swamped with false reports of children abuse, etc. While supporters of the bill push the idea that children should be disciplined by dialog and that parents should explain why they shouldn't be doing certain things instead of smacking them. They also say that if violence against any adult person (your partner, colleagues, fellow citizens on the street) is outlawed, how is it possible that we can still use violence against the weakest human beings amongst us.

I wholeheartedly support the anti-smackers, but I also don't have children. So I really don't know, if it is possible to bring up a child without ever hitting him/her. What do you think? Should children be smacked or not?

Posted by gkligyte at April 18, 2007 12:42 AM
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no smacking please.... I try screaming with Lu ;-) Posted by: abc on April 28, 2007 12:57 PM
So what does L do to deserve a smack on a diaper? I guess as long as sensible conversations don't really register in a child's brain, it is hard to really discipline with explanations? I'm really curious to find out what happens here in NZ. Hopefully it will make some parents think twice before spanking a child, because until now some of them managed to get away saying that using a horse whip on a child is "reasonable force"!!! Posted by: on April 22, 2007 10:23 PM
we occasionally lightly smack luca on his diaper - but very very rarely and only for something truly terrible. We found that smacking him anywhere else like even on his hand, leads him to smack you back when he wants something and you don't want to give it to him. After all, children learn by example.... Posted by: jo on April 18, 2007 04:25 PM
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