You aren’t allowed to smack your partner or dog – you shouldn’t be allowed to hit your child

How can we declare war on thugs in the street but allow parents to hit their kids inside their own homes?

You aren’t allowed to smack your partner – or even your dog – and you shouldn’t be allowed to smack your child.

On Thursday, the Herald Sun reported new research that shows six in 10 young Australians were smacked repeatedly by their parents while they were growing up.

It’s caused them to be nearly twice as likely as other teens and young adults to develop anxiety and depression, the national survey of 8500 people shows.

This has led to calls for the removal of the legal defence of “reasonable chastisement” allowing parents to use physical violence on their children.

Six in ten young Australians were smacked repeatedly by their parents growing up.

I was floored to learn that such a clause even exists – surely no level of physical abuse is reasonable given the size and power difference between kids and parents?

How can we declare war on thugs in the street but allow parents to hit their kids inside their own homes where no one’s around to see witness what’s going on?

It’s true that there are different ways to smack kids – a tap on the bottom is a lot less of a problem than an almighty belting. Some smacks are clearly abusive, others may not be.

However, there are some parents who don’t know when to stop, which means all corporal punishment must be outlawed.

If you’re a parent who smacks their kids into submission, what kind of message you are sending them? You’re teaching them that violence is acceptable, that’s what.

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?

There are some parents who don’t know when to stop, which means all corporal punishment must be outlawed.

As a parent of three children, I know how hard it is to get discipline right.

I should admit that in the past I smacked my children occasionally when they were younger – always with an open hand on a clothed bottom. It never felt right and I haven’t done it for many years.

It was always a sign that I was out of control – not them. That’s the worst time of all to be using corporal punishment on kids.

All I did was show them that violence was an acceptable way of resolving a problem.

It’s not a great lesson to be teaching kids who are growing up in today’s complex, difficult word.

There are better ways to keep kids in line than hitting them and parents should be given more support to non-violent means of punishing kids.

A smack is never just a smack.

It’s always violence and it’s never acceptable – whether it’s a partner, a pet or a child.