Smacking

Isn't it strange that one of the ways parents use to teach their children the difference between wrong and right is to hit them? The difference between wrong and right. Hitting them. Funny kind of logic.
If your child doesn't behave, if they doesn't do what he or she is told, you can hit them. I won't sugar the pill and call it "smacking", because that paints a more placid picture. What it is is hitting. Assault.
You don't have the right to punch your friends if they don't obey your orders, so why the hell should you be able to hit your children? At least your friends are adults and can summon up some resistance, your children are helpless. And what is worse, they rely on you for survival, for food and water, for warmth and love. How do you think they feel when the two people who provide everything for them, and are the biggest role models in their lives turn around and physically abuse them? Yes, I said abuse. It's not a nice word, but look it up in the dictionary. It fits.
You wouldn't lock them in a cage without food for a week would you? You wouldn't leave them outside overnight? You wouldn't put cigarettes out on them, would you? So why would you hit them? Hide behind your safe word, "smacking", or your traditional image of putting your child over your knee, the result is the same as slapping them across the face.
It's going to torture their self confidence, and the conflicting emotions and confusion must be horrible. Let alone the possibility of them growing up to believe that it's acceptable to hit their own poor children.
I can't stand some of the arguments people come up with to defend this abuse. "You have to make children understand". "The only language they understand is smacking". "They won't forget their lesson now".
Of course they won't forget the time their own parents hit them. Ever. They're children. Nothing they could do in their innocent way could ever deserve to be punished by being struck. Yes, children need discipline, sometimes hard discipline, but what does physical violence and fleeting pain and fear teach them about life? Go on, tell me, I want to know.
If you don't have the love and patience necessary to teach your children about how grow into acceptable, responsible adults without raising your hand to them, then it's you that needs to be on the end of it, not your child.
[note: I was not abused as a child, just to clear that one up, mother.]