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| 90% of Aussies believe Smacking One's Children is Okay! | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 15 2009, 07:01 AM (127 Views) | |
| Sayf Udeen Ismaeel | Oct 15 2009, 07:01 AM Post #1 |
Icon by meagan_chelsea @ LJ
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Australians want to see children smacked TOUGHEN up, Aussie kids: you live in a country where more than 90 per cent of people are happy to see you smacked. The naughty corner is out and spanking is in for thousands of parents who overwhelmingly support a swift whack round the rear when children misbehave. The discipline debate raged today after a nine-year-old girl told her classmates in Year 3 at Yea Primary School her mum had hit her with a wooden spoon. Mother Claire Davidson was then reported to police by a school support worker. "I was told it was assault with a weapon to hit her with a wooden spoon on the bum," Ms Davidson said. Ms Davidson said she grew up with a wooden spoon in the house and admitted she and her partner, Joe Oravec, used it – sparingly - on daughter Anna. "We only use the wooden spoon and that is only when she is being naughty and we give her fair chance to rectify the situation and we talk her through it," she said. "I give her three warnings and then it is spoon time." Readers across the country backed Ms Davidson: 93 per cent of those who voted in a national online poll supported smacking, and backed up their votes with a torrent of comments. “ …parents should be allowed to give the do-gooders of this world a darned good thrashing for their meddling in parental relationships and misguidance of family matters outside their bureaucratic understanding,” wrote Stardust on heraldsun.com.au. Reader Kat said “a quick smack on the bum never did any child harm”. “We grew up to respect our parents and knew how far we could go. You only have to look around at the shopping centres to see children who should be dealt with there and then but the parents don't dare - and the children know it. So we have unruly kids making life a misery for all until they grow up and move out to become full-time thugs.” But others were appalled by the practice. “Why should an adult have the right to hit someone that is smaller than them? There are other ways to discipline children without laying a hand on them,” wrote Terri-Louise Fryar of Stockholm, Sweden. Others blamed physical punishment for violent behaviour later in life. “I'm tipping most of the thugs who go 'round bashing others in Melbourne's CBD were also hit with objects as kids. School employees are mandated to report incidents such as this so Ms Davidson needs to get over herself,” wrote Riles. Nationally, the online poll results were: • dailytelegraph.com.au – 95 per cent in favour of smacking, 5 per cent against • couriermail.com.au – 95 per cent in favour, 5 per cent against • news.com.au – 94 per cent in favour, 6 per cent against • heraldsun.com.au – 92 per cent in favour, 8 per cent against • adelaidenow.com.au – 92 per cent in favour, 8 per cent against • perthnow.com.au – 92 per cent in favour, 8 per cent against A total of 7860 people voted in the poll. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26212678-421,00.html I'm really surprised by the polls. I know statistics prove very little, if anything, but geeeesh! |
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| gingerwitch28 | Oct 15 2009, 07:22 AM Post #2 |
twenty-first century ennui
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Hey, I'm all for being smacked. Not across the face or with any kind of implement, but when you're young, a smack on the rear does actually work for discipline. And there are things like locking your kid outside or denying hugs and other kind of physical parent/child contact which I think are far more harmful. I get the impression that people who were never smacked as kids are horribly against it, while those who were (i.e me) never had any issues with it. |
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| Cobby | Oct 15 2009, 07:58 AM Post #3 |
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I'm not against hitting kids perse, as long as it's not with a weapon and that includes a wooden spoon. The fact is, that a young childs attention span is too short for vocal warnings to get through to them, at least half the time anyway. The laws over physical dissapline are beyond harendess now, and for a brief time when my mother was doing domestic child care, she wasn't even allowed to put missbehaving kids in a 'naughty corner' or anything that was demed 'negative to the childs wellbeing'. I can understand not being able to hit someone elses child, but not being able to even punish or yell at a child put under your care is ludicrous! When did we loose the insight of distinquishing between abuse and education? |
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| Sayf Udeen Ismaeel | Oct 15 2009, 09:01 AM Post #4 |
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I wonder if the 'well-being' law applies to the education system too... |
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| gingerwitch28 | Oct 15 2009, 10:47 AM Post #5 |
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twenty-first century ennui
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Of course it does. |
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| Cobby | Oct 15 2009, 11:03 AM Post #6 |
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No this was more local law I believe, detention would fall under what they define to be negative to a childs wellbeing, because as I said she wasn't even allowed to give them a time out. |
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| Sayf Udeen Ismaeel | Oct 15 2009, 11:12 AM Post #7 |
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Icon by meagan_chelsea @ LJ
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I should have specified, to the extent of 'no naughty corner'...I'm well aware physical abuse in the classroom is pretty frowned upon. 
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| Sayf Udeen Ismaeel | Oct 18 2009, 12:07 AM Post #8 |
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Icon by meagan_chelsea @ LJ
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in naughty corner for smacking kids CHILD experts are sending Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the naughty corner over his admission he smacked his children when they were young. The Sunday Mail reports leading psychologists and child advocates say Mr Rudd sent the wrong message to Australian parents when he said that it was okay to give children a smack. Weighing in to the debate, Mr Rudd said: "And the rule that's been applied in our family ever since they were tots is that if they're doing something dangerous they'll get a, you know, whack across the knuckles." "The key thing is a gentle tap on the wrists which is usually, if you know anything about two and three-year-olds, the cause of the quivering bottom lip and the general collapse into tears." His comments come after the smacking debate was ignited last week when Melbourne mother Claire Davidson was dobbed in to police for disciplining her nine-year-old daughter with a wooden spoon. The Association of Children's Welfare Agencies chief executive Andrew McCallum told The Sunday Mail hitting children was never acceptable and Mr Rudd's comments did not set a good example. "In this day and age we know any form of violence against children is unacceptable and unproductive," he said. Leading child psychologist John Irvine said he was yet to meet a parent who got positive results from smacking a child. "The Prime Minister is trying to show he is human but he is also saying to parents who have smacked that they are not nasty people," he said. "But for the ones who do tend to hit, it is a little bit of a licence for them and it wouldn't do those who are hitting their kids any good." http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26225279-421,00.html |
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| gingerwitch28 | Oct 18 2009, 03:15 AM Post #9 |
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twenty-first century ennui
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Dare I say it? I'm normal and I was smacked. So are all the other people I know. For crying out loud, it's better than the complete brats parents are raising these days. |
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4:33 AM Nov 26
