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A smack. A slap. A spank. A tap. A one-handed clap. There are lots of ways to describe the physical disciplining of children. But surely, whatever you call

it, it can never be right to hit a child. Can it? asks Rachel Kenney .

W

hen lots of us were young, being chased around the house by a slipper-wielding mum was par for the course. The constant threat, “Wait till your father gets home” hung heavy on plenty of otherwise play-flled days. And the wooden spoon sometimes took on a more sinister use than stirring the buttercream.

But over the past few decades, approaches to child discipline have shifted very frmly from stick to carrot. Smacking has been banned in many countries (including New Zealand, Germany and Sweden), and childcare experts have been lining up to tell us not to smack our misbehaving children. They say that, as well as being morally wrong and an abuse of the child’s rights, smacking doesn’t work as a way of modelling good behaviour. Some say that instead of teaching a child about right and wrong, it just breeds violence.

Just say no!

In her best-selling book Your Baby & Child , Penelope Leach tells us that smacking simply doesn’t work. She says, “Smacked children can never remember what they are smacked for. Pain and indignity make

them so angry that they go away seething with anger, rather than full of repentance.” Dr Sears, the popular American paediatrician and parenting guru echoes this message, saying, “Spanking doesn’t work for the child, for the parents, or for society.” And the latest phenomenon of the parenting world, Supernanny, favours techniques such as the naughty step – “a place of ref lection where the child realises they’ve done something wrong” – rather than a smack. She says, “What does a clip around the ear solve? Nothing.” Sociologist Murray Straus has studied smacking in the US for 40 years, and in his book Beating the Devil Out of Them says that smacking puts children at increased risk of a whole host of possible side effects when they grow up, such as increased aggression and depression. Not only that, but it is also damaging to family relationships. He says, “I suggest that each spanking chips away at the bond between parent and child.” His more recent research says that a child who is smacked up to three times a week will have a lower IQ than a child who is not smacked, due to psychological stress. He believes, “Ending corporal punishment is one of the most important steps to achieving a less violent world.”

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