'Smacking ban' to be passed?

[jrandom]

See Herald article.

When I think about the proposal, I find myself not having a problem with it, to my surprise. My only hope is that more of the quiet and horrific physical abuse that screws up too many of the nation's children will be brought out into the open as a result, and its perpetrators dealt with sternly.

I don't remember receiving a single wallop as a child that did me a bit of good. In fact, residual resentment from the regular corporal punishment my parents used to hand out when I was a wee 'un contributed a lot toward my significant falling-out with them in my later teenage years.

I now have a three-year-old and a four-year-old, both of whom collapse and comply immediately under a frown and growl if I ever need them to. I haven't laid a hand on them in years. A couple of slaps on the bum prior to their second birthdays reinforced everything that'll ever be needed.

Any parent who still needs to hit their child after age five to control them has fucked up and spawned a waste of oxygen.

[Indiana_Jones]

I have no objections to smacking, I plan to use it if/when I become a father.

I want to use the belt >8D

-Indy

[jrandom]

I have no objections to smacking, I plan to use it if/when I become a father.

Thanks for that insightful little pearl of wisdom, Indy. I was wondering what your opinion would be. Glad we've got that sorted out.

[Indiana_Jones]

Thanks for that insightful little pearl of wisdom, Indy. I was wondering what your opinion would be. Glad we've got that sorted out.

Don't mention it

-Indy

[ZorsT]

I have no objections to smacking, I plan to use it if/when I become a father.

-Indy

Ditto.

If theres one thing that everone understands, its pain.

[MSTRS:Me]

See Herald article.

When I think about the proposal, I find myself not having a problem with it, to my surprise. My only hope is that more of the quiet and horrific physical abuse that screws up too many of the nation's children will be brought out into the open as a result, and its perpetrators dealt with sternly.

I don't remember receiving a single wallop as a child that did me a bit of good. In fact, residual resentment from the regular corporal punishment my parents used to hand out when I was a wee 'un contributed a lot toward my significant falling-out with them in my later teenage years.

I now have a three-year-old and a four-year-old, both of whom collapse and comply immediately under a frown and growl if I ever need them to. I haven't laid a hand on them in years. A couple of slaps on the bum prior to their second birthdays reinforced everything that'll ever be needed.

Any parent who still needs to hit their child after age five to control them has fucked up and spawned a waste of oxygen.

What a good thing you got in before the Bill, then. You child abuser, you. You do realise that the damage is done?? Your kids will grow up to be anti-social abusers too.

[Deano]

A couple of slaps on the bum prior to their second birthdays reinforced everything that'll ever be needed.

But that's illegal now isn't it ?

[jrandom]

I want to use the belt

When I was about six, I crept into my parents' bedroom with a pair of scissors one night after they were asleep, took the leather belt my dad had beaten me with earlier that day, cut it into a lot of little pieces, and put them into a little pile on the end of the bed to be discovered in the morning.

I can't remember precisely what was done to me in retribution, but I tell you what. It was fucking worth it.

[MSTRS:Me]

.....But Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said the bill should "cause parents to shiver in their boots".

"We have just heard about the right of a teenager to effectively 'divorce' their parent because they don't like the family rules, a 12-year-old being sneaked off to get contraceptives by their school and now this bill.

"Parents should be horrified by the way their authority and responsibilities are being undermined."

NZ the way you want it? I don't think so.

[jrandom]

But that's illegal now isn't it ?

If you don't leave a mark and nobody sees you do it, how on earth are you going to get into trouble for smacking an under-two-year-old? They can't talk intelligibly enough to rat on you, and by the time they can, they will have forgotten it happened.

[Deano]

If you don't leave a mark

Ah, the old phone book treatment !!

[Hitcher]

There is a big difference between domestic violence and "smacking". My concern is that the proposed Bill assumes that these are the same thing.

Corporal punishment and the application thereof has a lot to do with its cultural context. Back in the antediluvian age before cellphones, like, when I went to secondary school, corporal punishment was not just the norm, it was an artform, with accompanying traditions, liturgy and doctrine. Its application was mandatory for all manner of offences both trivial and inane. And am I a better person for the application of bloodied welts to my arse? Who knows? But I fear the counterfactual.

[Lissa]

I think its a good thing.... Never smacked my children when they were under two though... I kind of think with toddlers you have to have a lot of patience and understanding, a smack on my two year old, I think she would be pretty shocked and upset if I did that, I would hate to see the look in her eyes, that her mummy 'hurt' her. I just hope that this bill stops the "abusers" the ones that dont smack ..... they punch, hit, kick etc, taking out their aggression on someone who cant defend themselves, and not for disipline but because they feel like it.

[MSTRS:Me]

If you don't leave a mark and nobody sees you do it, how on earth are you going to get into trouble for smacking an under-two-year-old? They can't talk intelligibly enough to rat on you, and by the time they can, they will have forgotten it happened.

Aaaah...the old "If a tree fell in the forest & no-one was there to hear, did it make a noise?"

[jrandom]

... am I a better person for the application of bloodied welts to my arse?

Yes, Mr Gormsby.