No, a clip around the ear is one thing. Obviously anyone seriously hurting their children needs to be dealt with but this is just irrational.

Also how would one legislate for something that mainly takes place in private?

This government will do anything to distract from the job at hand. They should clean up their act and implement the laws that are already there before rushing to introduce more laws that can’t be enforced. If they were really concerned about children, they would stop cutting resources to those who are most in need. Nero fiddled while Rome burned springs to mind.

I say Yes, but this is the third article here in the last week or so, and, like before, there’s going to be polarised views and no consensus until an objective distinction between a smack as discipline and a strike as violent action can be put forward. “I worked for me” / “It didn’t work for me” is subjective and anecdotal, it’s not objective fact. On the plus side, everyone gets to say agin what thy’ve said before for a third time, so I suppose it keeps everyone busy.

Nah… I was beaten with EVERY household utensil and I turned out alright..!!

Smacking them shouldn’t, beating them should.

I was talking about this recently to someone who is completely against it. Their logic was that it would prevent abuse of children. I was explaining that the abuse of children is already illegal. Funny enough they didn’t have any children.

I am not a fan of the government telling me what I can and can’t do when it comes to discipline. I have never beaten my children and never will but a kick in the arse has never done anyone any harm.

I dont slap my children its a rule agreed by my wife & I before we got married. Both of us were slapped when we were young & one of us was beaten. I grew up with thinking that slapping a child was necessary & normal. I have 4 children 2 boys 2 girls & they are full of life. They have grown up with a parent with mental health issues & they are bright beautiful & respectful. They can express themselves in a way that even now as an adult I cant. I voted no to this ban because its not my place to tell other people how to raise their children. However I suggest you try not slapping your children for a year & see the results. My children have more confidence & challenge me everyday. It never did me any harm I hear you say. Only a doctor can tell you that. If you decide to slap your children I respect that choice & wont judge but if you change that view you will be enlightened & connected to your children in a different way.

To be honest I remember more as to why I got a clip around the ear when I was a kid far more than my parents saying no you can’t do something.

The definitions of what is and is not classed as physical abuse are ambiguous in this country. Anyone who has read or trained under child protection in Ireland would be aware of this. While not condoning abuse a clear distinction of what is and is not acceptable needs to be clarified. When is physical chastisement acceptable? Working with adolescent populations this is something which greatly concerns me from another perspective. I have directly been and seen the impact on families of young people using the threat of (or actually) reporting parents and care givers for physical and emotional abuse if they don’t allow them to behave in the way they want (go out, smoke, drink, etc). Some people are actually being “abused by children”. This does happen and it’s frightening!
Things do need to be addressed for clarity, for both parents and children in this state. The laws already exist but the clarity is that of muck! These things can blow out of hand and the true meaning lost. What exactly are we trying to clarify here, children’s rights alone? I think not, the rights of all should be examined. What about children hitting other children etc. what is a child hits a parent or member of the public. Not all children or parents hit but clarity and supports for parents need to be given before issues arise. Access to parenting classes, behaviour management strategies should be freely available to all parents. This state has a tendency to only provide supports when the shit hits the fan.

No, bloody nanny state. It will not stop the parents who beat the hell out of their kids anyway, and will criminalise parents eho do so rarely. Go gix the country and stay out of my family.

The words “DS confiscated, NO playground Wednesday evening and YOUR Grounded on Saturday” is the best discipline of all and certainly does no harm.

instill fear in them … its the only way they will listen im not saying beating ur child is ok but a light smack on the legs is sometimes required to make them understand certain behavior won’t be accepted. if it stops them turning out to be a brat its done more good then harm.

I’ve seen parents trying to reason with children before, it simply doesn’t work in some cases — a good smack gets the point across.

http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/research/children/uk.html
An overview of that research report “It Hurts You Inside” with what the children said.

An adult belting a child on the back of the legs is always wrong, however I see nothing wrong with a literal light slap on the wrist for persistent misbehaviour, I dont see it as logical that the child would turn into a warped, psychologically scarred adult from the occasional tap as a child

so because a parent slaps their child it means they are lazy child abusing parents. bullsh*t. Im sorry but i do not agree with that one bit but that is your opinion and this is mine. i have 2 kids that are my life. they tell me all the time they love me i get kisses and cuddles and yes, these two kids get a slap when they are bold or misbehaving but only once I’ve spoken too them or raised my voice. i little slap does no harm a battering or beating i don’t agree with. nuf said.

Daniel that was aimed at those who think its ok to choose to hit your child because of a crap argument that you have to be free to live your life or whatever shite they where saying

Since traveling by train to and around Dublin the past while, and seeing a fair number of mothers who are not parenting, just smacking for anything, not trying to tell children “no” etc, I think mandatory proper parenting courses might be more beneficial than more laws that will not be enforced, or very difficult to enforce.

Thank you Michelle, that really made the point 100%… someone will say.. I got a slap and it did me no harm. don’t let them bother you, thats what they see as being a good parent no mentally scaring your child, they set the bar very low.

Really I am blown away by how well you covered this.

Thank god the law doesn’t allow schools to do that now Maurice. Hitting children, an adult hitting a child, even worse a parent who is loved and who the world revolves around hitting you.. how do you think an innocent child’s mind sees that, how terrifying it is.

Children recover, they forgive, so if you have hit your child, just see it for what it is, don’t do it again and forgive yourself. Then be happy and move on without that as part of your parenting.

If my kids do something wrong I speak to them with love and they are great I would never touch them! And if a teacher ever laid a hand on my kid
It would be the last time they ever use that hand !!!

Im 30 and got a slap on the arm off my mother the other day. for cursing. forgot myself and the company i was in. i got such a fright i cursed again and got another one. funny but we never cursed infront of our parents. a slap i got aged 10 for cursing stuck with me until the other day oops :-)

It is to subtle an issue to make a statement like ‘getting smacked never did me or anybody I know any harm.’
Kids who have been smacked don’t grow horns out of their head.
We are all different, none of us perfect.
Another way of looking at this is ‘Does smacking achieve anything that can’t be achieved by other methods?
Why do it?
The child feels miserable after it and in most cases the parent feels bad also.
Kids are not stupid, they can learn without being hit.

I’d be against smacking children myself. I mean, it’s not going to have long-lasting negative effects on most children, but it might with some. It depends on the child, I’d imagine. And it still mightn’t be a good thing to do, even if all it does is confuse or scare the children into not being bold again. I wouldn’t be convinced that it’d be a good idea enough to ever try it on my own kids.

Banning it is pretty stupid though, how would you enforce it? Raising awareness and discouraging it would be a better approach if that’s the road we want to go down. And either way, I’m glad we stopped kids being punished physically in schools, it happened in my school (in the 90s even!) and it messed me up plenty.

I think to ban it is extreme that’s why I said I don’t know, even though I did agree with smacking , but no harm in a campaign to discourage it

“The children we listened to said children do not smack adults because they are scared they will be hit again; adults do not smack each other because they are big and know better and because they love and care about each other.”-that is heartbreaking

19 European countries have now acted to satisfy human rights obligations by giving children equal protection from assault:
1979 Sweden
1983 Finland
1987 Norway
1989 Austria
1994 Cyprus
1996 Italy (by Supreme Court)
1997 Denmark
1998 Latvia
1999 Croatia
2000 Bulgaria
2000 Germany
2003 Iceland
2004 Romania
2004 Ukraine
2005 Hungary
2006 Greece
2007 Netherlands
2007 Portugal
2007 Spain
More than half Council of Europe member states have now legislated for equal protection for children.
Of the 27 countries of the European Union, only five – one of which is Ireland – fail to give children
equal protection or have not made a commitment. Will we be last???

These countries don’t seem to have had any adverse effects – in fact quite the opposite seems to be the case… here is the Swedish Government’s 30-year review http://sca.savethechildren.se/Documents/Resources/never%20violence.pdf

Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark are at the top of life satisfaction and happiness scores by their citizens across a number of indicators – they must be doing something right!

As regards the insistence on using euphemistic words like ‘smacking’ as opposed to words like hitting, I wonder what people who support hitting children think would be a good legal definition of reasonable physical punishment: slapping hard with an open hand? On which parts of the body? The head, face, legs, arm? With how much force? Closed adult fist most people would agree would be a bit much for a little three-year-old. Is biting OK if they have bitten somebody? What about using an implement? Is a wooden spoon OK? A birch? If a rod, how thick should it be allowed to be (you used to be able to beat your wife with a rod, but it could not be more than a specified thickness).

As regards the loving little ‘tap’, why would that work if it does not hurt? Surely the reason physical punishment works and instils enough fear to act as a deterrent is because if causes the child pain? If parents who hit their children say it does not inflict pain sufficient to cause fear of a further hit, but just shows the child you are upset, then why hit them? Could you not show them you are upset with your voice? I would like people to confess that hitting is used because it hurts, otherwise why use it? There is a very moving report that was done by Save The Children called “It hurts you inside”, where they interviewed young kindergarten children about their experience of being hit in what most would see as a pretty usual way by their parents – the title is one of the quotes from a child.

I was at a great parenting talk by David Coleman where he did a little skit on parents hitting their children to teach them not to hit other children: “STOP (slap) HITTING (slap) YOUR (slap) SISTER (slap)!!!” There is a wealth of evidence from studies to show that children who are hit when growing up are much more likely to be aggressive and violent as adults. There is also a wealth of evidence to show that children brought up with positive, loving guidance and discipline, with appropriate boundaries do best against all scores of happiness and success. Authoritarian parenting, with physical violence, and total laissez-faire parenting are two extreme ends of a scale – there is lots in between that is humane and loving and proven to work. As a nation, perhaps we just don’t realise – with our long history of institutionalised child abuse and authoritarianism through all of our society – that we are actually not the people we think we are who love children so very much and are so very nice, friendly and kind. I urge parents who think that hitting, shouting at or humiliating their child is the only way to enrol in one of the many brilliant parenting courses that show you can raise children to be better, more responsible and more happy adults, and have a better relationship with them, through positive parenting techniques – it may take a bit more effort than slapping to build that relationship, but we owe it to our kids.

And yes, I am a parent and I have a lovely 16-year-old son.

i normally dont comment, but feel compelled to in this case, as it is quite worrying the percentage of people who don’t agree with the ban. while i agree there is a big difference between a light smack and a beating, I think the risk of a slippery slope to abuse outweighs any benefits of slapping, considering with time , effort and education there are other more humane ways to discipline a child.

recently i was in town, and a girl of about nine, saw a bunch of pigeons ahead of her on the street and instinctively ran playfully at the them and they all went flying up in the air. her father walloped her forcefully on the head three times, the poor child was stunned and the look on her face was awful. it was outright abuse and god knows what he does at home, i felt awful, but there was nothing i could do.

and when you think about imagine how you would feel as adult if someone slapped you, even you did happen to be in the wrong, how does it feel to a child? I cant imagine it actually does any good.

Today – children need to be corrected – so misbehaved – no respect – as a child we were told what to do and a shake of the kitchen drawer where the wooden spoon was kept – you knew where you stood — it did me & my sisters no harm— we laugh today about it !!!

Parents that don’t discipline their children should be smacked!!!

‘smacking’ is euphemism for ‘hit’ , if i, an adut, ‘smacked’ you, an adult i’d be up on an assault charge. why then is it ok to ‘smack’ a child!

i’ve seen some ‘smacking’ that is plainly gross assault under the guise of ‘parental discipline’, wrong…it’s parents who have lost their temper and lash out. assault!

There should be 2 identical polls one for parents and one for non-parents.

That should sort out the theory crowd from the crowd that know what they are talking about.

Excellent comments on the smacking issue, a good read. There are a lot of intelligent and sensible people out there when it comes to this issue.

Unbelievable that so many support the continuation of random pointless violence toward children. People are sick

Ah … I remember it well……….the threat of the wooden spoon……….

People seem to thinking that if a child is not smacked they must not be disciplined for mis behaving.. there are many many other ways to do this. I mean are people really that stupid? of COURSE children should not be spoiled let away with murder etc but its the slapping them thats wrong. Use the brain in your head to think of a different punishment. Its degrading to a child and readibg some of the conments i pity many of the children whi have these ignorant morons for parents…i have 3 children who now how to behave without being slapped because i have gone to the bother to rear them properly..

Michelle very well said. Slapping is not a tool for discipline. Yes kids need rules love and guidence all which can be achieved without hitting them. its a loss of control plain and simple and it should never be ok for someone twice or three times your size to hit you and i cant believe there are still those who thinks its ok. You wouldnt stand for a teachet doing it buts its ok for a parent?rubbish its wrong

How about wife beating? Are only a small minority of Journal readers opposed to that too?

A little tip never harmed any kid! We were beaten when we misbehaved when we were growing up and it never harmed any of us. It would be more in their line to concentrate on banning parents with kids in cars from smoking as in my opinion is more of a health hazard.

if it’s pc gone mad, as some say, to intervene if you see a parent hitting a child… so it should be the same if we see a man hitting a crying woman! should husbands be allowed to slap their wives? wives are adults and can leave and stand up for themselves or press chiggers. children are totally dependent on their parents, the cannot defend themselves and we allow them to be slapped by law! think about it, why do people feel they can hit a child? would they do it of their child was bigger than them.. no, they wouldn’t do it if the child could defend themselves.It shouldn’t be called a ban, just brining assault laws for children into line with adults.

It’s scary to think that I live in a country where so many people think its ok to use violence against children. An adult hitting another adult is bad but an adult hitting someone who is so many times smaller than them as a method of teaching or education is odd. In some countries its Illegal. have’t we learned anything..

It’s a no brainer….hitting a child shows complete lack of self discipline and lack of education. Teach by example and love. I can’t believe there are still so many in Ireland that think it’s ok to instill fear in a child especially in a place that is supposed to be their safe sanctuary….for feck sake cop on Ireland

Were a bunch of lazy idiots. We protect all groups in society from violence, women in particular spent a long time demanding the end to simply being given a slap to correct behaviour, and yet we refuse to protect the children, the most vulnerable of our society, because we can’t be bothered to begin disciplining and teaching correctly, and largely because kids have no say in the matter and therefore the only perspective we have is adults who naturally think there in the right because the alternative is to realise that their cruel, vicious people.

a little slap is not beating the living daylights out of ur child. a little slap is what my kids get if necessary. its a very last resort.

The old wooden spoon on the backside when I was younger never did me any harm.

smacking kids is just a substitute for proper parenting.

If it’s illegal to hit an adult, why should it be legal to hit a child.

Should it be okay to hit an elderly person – if they wouldn’t take their medicine or dress themselves properly?
Also, what about mentally challenged people? A clip around the ear when they wet the bed would soon teach them.

smacking a child in public i think should be classed as abusing a child,
but how do you get a child to understand right from wrong if no punishment is given.
light smacking is viable source of punishment for something done wrong, beating a child is considered abusing

I was beaten by the gardi as a child and it had a serious negative effect on me. technically it’s a problem with them, but it left it’s mark on me.

The debate shouldn’t be over banning it. It should be to standardize assault laws i.e. making anything that would be considered assault on an adult to also be assault for a child. Why should children be aloud to be mistreated in a way adults are not? This is as nanny state as a law saying I cannot hit another adult without risking facing legal penalties.

We do have to make sure we don’t continue turning a light slap into the same thing as a beating or a punch. It is not as bad as some like to make out, also it does not make people mannerly or make people respect others as others say.

As for enforcement, it would be tricky, but it would send a message that children are entitled to the same protection under law as adults. Have we not as a society been trying to provide ultimate protection for children? If slapping is to be left as an option to parents, it should be done with eyes wide open. It should be evaluated as a parenting tool and the decision made to allow it only if there are good grounds showing it is effective. If not ban it and show educational adds on the reasons, like how in affective it is and the effect it has on children.

Society is violent enough, surely teaching our children to use violence, which a parent using it does teach, is the last thing we should condone.

Why is it a criminal offence to hit an adult but perfectly “reasonable” to strike a child? Children need protection from abuse and violence with at least the same legal protection as adults have, if not more.

A further point is that, while as a society we blame video games and television for corrupting our youth with violent imagery, we forget that most violence is learnt in the home. This teaches children that violence is a valid method of resolving conflict. It is time to break this cycle and a statement such as the criminalisation of all forms of violence against children would be a welcome starting point.

I was in a museum during the week, unruly kids were running around shouting and screaming and getting in the way of everybody else who actually wanted to view the exhibits. Some of them could have done with a good slap. And before anyone jumps on the PC bandwagon, I do not condone child abuse of any kind, there is a difference between a slap and beating.
Also, it seemed that the parents of aforementioned kids were on a PC high, as all they did was tell the child to walk, as he/she ran away. One mother was particularly bad, calling the length of the display room to her “Darling”.
Eventually I could take no more and left.
We travelled to the next town for lunch and lo-and-behold, just as our menus arrived a family with 3 or 4 kids came in and proceeded to run riot around the pub. Once again the parents “talked” to the children and were ignored.
I honestly blame the parents. No discipline = lack of respect

Vented now…

the survey is worded ridiculously… half believe it is ok to slap a child under some circumstances… jesus, you could be 99% against it but still say there could be a circumstance where a slap would be appropriate! It was clearly worded to get it looking like irish people support slapping, total spin!

I suppose the parents saying a little slap is ok may be out of possibly feeling guilty for having given a slap a few times. We must remember to keep things in proportion and not demonize people who have slapped a child. Raising a child is very difficult and if you have a few kids you may get frazzled, tierd, and out of that feel a slap is the only solution. They are not bad parents, and once slapping is not part of an issue with the parent, like a violent tendency or an inability to discipline their children without force, then the fact that a child got a slap on a number of occasions will probably not emotionally damage them.

If we make exaggerated parallels and start making a slap fall into a category of child abuse that is much more serious and committed by a sick person who is cruel and warped, we will push good parents away as they will feel they are being branded unfairly for having slapped their children. Also children who are adults now and may have been given a few slaps, love their parents and do not want to think they have been scared by them.

We must keep things in proportion, and just as if a man slaps his wife in the face over a 30 year marriage once, it would be unfair to say he was abusive and abused his wife, it is unfair to brand parents as child abusers for letting stress force them to make a bad decision. We must just see the act for what it is, wrong and serves no good. It is also not right for a person of bigger size and strength to use force, or threaten force, on those not so strong.

Sorry Seanbeag my irony clearly went over your head.

Hitting (slapping sounds nicer) children (or any other member of society) is obviously wrong but hard to admit because ‘that’s the way we’ve been doing it’. No need to feel guilty for what we may have done, but just admit, ‘CHANGE’ and move on. Don’t have to be a philosopher or intellectual to understand that civilization is based on constructing a society that does not impose physical force as chastisement whether it be hanging, burning at the stake, lapidating, exactly the same on a larger scale, as a lot of people are talking about scale ‘just a smack, not beating’, but the principle is either right or wrong, ‘Physical force or civilized means’. You’re also teaching your children how to punish. If someone doesn’t do what you want, or has done something bad, hit them until they do.
‘The government should not intervene in how I run my family. I can raise my children as I want’’, laws which control society prevail over any ‘family’ practices. Children are members of society that you have brought into the world. They are not your ‘property’. We are responsible and have the privilege of their integration into society and it doesn’t involve hitting.
(3 kids).

Sitting in the cinema child behind me kicking the seat,

Little johnny stop kicking the seat,

Don’t kick the seat johnny,

Johnny stop kicking the seat,

Johnny please stop kicking the seat,

Johnny stop kicking the seat,

Johnny stop kicking the seat,

Johnny the lady is going to get cross don’t kick the seat,

Johnny stop kicking the seat,

Johnny stop kicking the seat,

Johnny move to this seat,

Johnny please don’t kick the seat,

Johnny stop kickkkkkking the seat

Johnny thwack, I’ve told you to stop kicking the seat

Johnny stops kicking the seat…..

True story….

Also people who say they were beaten and they turned out fine, who then advocate beating the next generation should realise there is actually something quite wrong with them. Nobody likes getting a beating when it happens, your just taking a certain view of it when looking back in order make yourself feel better.

When parents smack their children it’s usually due to their own frustrations as opposed to what the child has done, which is probably nothing!

In my opinion “smacking and slapping” are the politically correct words being used in lieu “bullying and abuse”. The views that people have expressed and i quote “TURNED OUT OK” having been smacked or slapped as a child are simplistic ones. Of course these people turned out ok, battered husbands and wives, also “TURN OUT OK”. Just because someone is abused doesnt mean that they will turn out to be an anti social monster. “TURN OUT OK” should never be used as a justification to hit/abuse another human being.

100% No smacking. Would you like to be smacked?? If you treat your child fairly and bring them up well you should never have to contemplate raising your hand. It’s disgusting!

The Journal should have a poll asking “If you were smacked as a child are you now…

1. Completely screwed up and resentful of your parents
2. Terrified of wooden spoons
3. Rolling your eyes at the ridiculousness of this poll

I’m surprised at the amount of women, mothers etc. who say there is nothing wrong with a little smack.
What about me advocating giving the wife a little smack once in a while when she misbehaves?
Nothing violent, a little smack just to instil discipline and make her a better person. And don’t anybody intervene, she’s my wife to discipline as I see fit.
It’s P.C. Gone mad.

in MY opinion-lack of discipline has a lot of kids ruined.. they have no respect for their elders or authority.. i was smacked as a kid and im glad-cos i was a bowsie sometimes!! it showed me boundries and taught me respect for rules.. i also smacked my son when he would misbehave and he has turned out to be a very respectable young man!! without a smack-it often turns out to be a case of the “tail wagging the dog”… Roll on the thumbs down folks..!! :-)

Very worrying that I have an opinion reds? That’s my only way? Never said I smacked a child I said it never did me any harm when I was younger nor anyone else I know, get your facts right before you comment!

I thought striking a person was already against the law.

If I hit a parent – just a clip around the ear in the supermarket or a smack on the bottom getting on the bus – could I claim that I was doing it to educate them?

i was a brat of a child but by god the threat of the wooden spoon was enough to get me to behave (probably only got hit with it very few times and not very hard but the threat was enough!)

i went through an awful biting phase and after i tried to bite another child my mother took me aside and gave me a small bite on the arm and i never did it again!

Is it just me that thinks only those who were hit as a child can weigh in on this. If u weren’t smacked as a child u don’t know anything about this. U might think u do, but u don’t….

Having said that, violence is in the world in various forms; contact sports, bullying etc so to teach a child about it, showing images or explanations only go so far…. a clip round the ear or a fear of the wooden spoon is healthy in my opinion….

typical when u have no argument insult. karla… think il stay on my high horse i have great view of those of u below me but thanks for the laugh!x

rubbish argument. kids have the right to choose not to be hit!

Here we go, all the lazy-arsed, couldn’t-give-a-shit parents out in force again. Why take a bit of time to engage in a more meaningful way with your child when a swift wallop is so much easier? Here’s a thought, why not up your game so your child doesn’t need to be physically assaulted to learn a lesson. Argue, abuse, red thumb all you like, all right thinking people know it’s just a reaction to a guilty conscience. Hitting, smacking a child is wrong! If you need to do it, you’ve failed. Drag your lazy arse into the 21st century and learn to parent properly.

Karka that lady had to resort to hitting the child because she is a bad parent whi is not able to get her child to do what he is told without hitting him. its lazy parenting and achieves nothing.

I can’t believe the results!! Would you allow someone smack you??? Of course smacking children should be banned, and against the law! It’s all abuse!

my parents only ever slapped my sister once, they never slapped me or my brother and we were all well behaved kids and have grown into adults with full time jobs and all. However I know some parents who try to reason with their kids and discipline them verbally and it doesnt work so they have to slap the child to discipline them. Either way I dont believe in slapping a child hard, theres really no need for that as a lighter slap should have the same effect.

Hitting an adult is against the law so how hitting a child isn’t I will never understand.

Is it any wonder kids are the way they are today, no discipline at all cause these muppets think it’s a crime to smack your child! Never did me any harm nor anyone else.

The problem today is that the parents of the swinging sixties never smacked their kids and so now we have a bunch of brats out getting wasted every weekend. If you think you can be a parent by being your kid’s best friend prepare for a cruel wakeup call when your child is a teenager. The father of Miley Cyrus came out and said that he regretted trying to be his daughter’s best friend instead of her dad and now what’s she doing….out getting wasted of course.

Yes! If Supernanny can discipline a child without slapping them, so can you :)

My opinion would remain the same if the healine had read “Should all smacking of children by Parents/Guardians be banned”.

err wtf? are those results for real? nation of child abusers

Of course I’m referring to the trouble makers Daniel! Go back to ireland in the 50s ect, where kids going around drinking in bushes getting pregnant at the age of 11, or stabbing people at festivals! Sorry to take you out of your little dream world but there are kids out there that don’t listen to the word no!

maybe there should be another .. for those who were once children. From your statement you seem to be dismissing the non parent vote, even though they would have objectivity parents wouldn’t. How would you feel if someone said parents views were too subjective and no of any value?

So the government are considering a ban but in the meantime a parent can use a reasonable amount of force.
Sorry but this is sitting on the fence by a pathetic government unable to take a stance.

In the meantime Frances Fitzgerald is considering if they are going to ban the hitting of children.
Take a bow Frances.

I view smacking as lazy parenting in most instances, and in others “smacking” is an excuse for child abuse. That said, an outright ban is going too far. There are cases where it may in fact be necessary, and where not smacking a child might lead to greater harm – i.e. where the child is on the verge of committing a criminal act, or taking an illegal substance, or something of that sort.

Getting a few clathers does no harm. Some kids could do with a few

Also a slap is very different from a beating which most people seem to be confused about here! The topic is slapping not beating FFS!

Nanny state nonsense

It’s called having your say daniel and I’m having my say! Your the bigger fool for arguing with a fool in that case. ;)

Were no longer in the time of plenty when you can give your kids whatever they want in exchange for their good behaviour. Not so many Xbox consoles, games, ipods etc to use now.

I guarentee all you people out there trying to label good TIME PROVEN parenting as abuse will realize how idiotic you sound now.

@ Sean. a slap when necessary. i know myself when its necessary i don’t think i really need to justify that to anyone on here. Im not having a go at ur reply to my previous comment i dont stand there just looking for an excuse too slap. unfortunately my son.has hit the hormonal age and i do be fit too kill him but i think Im like any other parent. not all!! before i get attacked!

Well ok hitting a child is the worst sure and does not help but I must admit a small smack on the bum sometimes doesnt help but makes them behave again …. or on the hands…. a difficult issue i am very much AGAINST hitting but ALL… dont really know…

Jesus Daniel someone doesn’t agree with you get the hell over it!

They’ll consider banning smacking a child yet circumcision…you know, where you actually cut off part of a childs body which is significantly more painful, dangerous and in some cases life threatening, is legal and acceptable!

Just shows how stupid our leaders, here and in Europe, are.

when i was a child i was hit at school and if i done anything at home aswell therefore i never done anything out of the way growing up if they ban that there will be a lot more trouble in later years

thanks Michelle! ill have a look at that later. jeckyl and Hyde they are!
@ Sean i think we Will just have too agree to disagree on each others views/statements. i respect ur views on this but i also stick with my reasons for a smack/slap.

its the parents choice let them decide this country takes things was to seriously there’s a difference between a bold tap and a smack like what’s next obesity is a killer so lets put a weight restriction when selling junk food your life is what your supposed to make of it you should be allowed the choice to choose and to make harmless mistakes government back off the unimportant stuff and focus on getting this country back on track unbelievable