Susie O’Brien: Smacking your child is unacceptable

YOU can’t hit your partner or your pet, so why should it be acceptable for parents to hit their children, writes Susie O’Brien.

YOU can’t hit your partner or your pet, so why should it be acceptable for parents to hit their children?

I welcome new analysis showing smacking should be outlawed in Australia because condoning it makes it difficult to identify abusive parents.

LET’S CALL IT WHAT IT IS: SEXUAL SLAVERY

The argument, put by Australian QC Felicity Gerry, among others, is that we should join 49 other countries and ban all corporal punishment of children.

Alarmingly, this research concludes that allowing “lawful chastisement” keeps abuse hidden.

How can smacking be defended in this day and age?

“Domestic legislation which condones family violence in the name of punishment of children creates insuperable difficulties for clinicians trying to identify a child at risk from abusive parents from a parent who is otherwise caring but had a momentary loss of control,” the paper states.

TECH BAN A BLACK SPOT FOR GATES’ KIDS

KIDS DESERVE PRIVACY FROM PARENTS TOO

I still can’t believe that in this day and age anyone is defending the right of a parent to smack a child.

I am not saying that any parent who lightly taps a child should be hauled off before a magistrate, but I do think it’s time people in this country take a much harder line on children’s smacking.

What happens when slapping lightly stops being an effective deterrent? Do you slap a little harder the next time, and the next, and the next?

Allowing smacking of children keeps abuse hidden, Australian QC Felicity Gerry says.

Alarmingly, there is a significant minority of parents who routinely hit their children, causing great harm.

Psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is right that other discipline techniques are more effective.

“Virtually every health, psychological and medical authority agrees smacking is a very, very dumb thing to do,” he said.

“It tells children that it’s okay to use violence to get what you want — and that you, as a parent, have run out of ideas.”

There is plentiful evidence to show how smacking is linked to higher levels of aggression in children. No studies have been found to show a positive long-term effect from smacking.

It’s time for parents to take control of their children, but without using violence.

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