SMACKING children is an intriguing issue that may surprise you by its complexity.
At first blush you will either be for it or dead against it. But it's not that simple.
Who can forget the look on their child's face while they're under threat of a smack?
As far as discipline goes, I once watched a guy show off his terrier, but as he bent down to pat the dog it flinched and cringed. You immediately suspected the owner was a dog basher.
My worst experience with parents involves those who employ time bomb tactics. They chasten a child with an initial threat of punishment at a later time. Several hours later, the perplexed child is summonsed for punishment over an issue they have completely forgotten.
Another form of smacking is the traditional ``clip under the ears''. This is not punishment. Any strike to a child's head is an assault, designed not only to hurt them but also humiliate them.
Parents who give their kids a clout across the head, or a dismissive clip under the ears, are creating trauma and a lasting crisis of confidence from an early age.
Some experts and so-called experts want smacking in the home banned.
This wouldn't work. How could it be policed? It would be a nanny-state interference in our lives again, although, it may have an educative effect.
Littering is an offence that is hard to police, but we have littering laws to inform the public that it is not acceptable to indiscriminately dump rubbish.
A law does not become unwarranted or unnecessary just because it's hard to police.
Banning corporal punishment in schools was easy because it dealt with a public event in a public place, but it also rendered future generations of teachers powerless to enforce discipline, let alone even touch students.
Clever students caught on quickly. ``You can't touch me, it's against the law,'' they would chant and sneer at teachers.
When smacking becomes assault, when the so-called punishment becomes an excuse for domestic violence, police have clear powers of arrest.
Child bashers are dealt with harshly by courts.
The pressure to ban smacking would be aimed at curbing this trend, where smacking masks an assault and other forms of parental aggression.
The next time you smack your child try to determine how much of it is correctional punishment and how much is related to you.
As a child I was smacked at home, or ``given the stick'', and I can remember each occasion vividly. I certainly remember the times when I thought it was unwarranted.
At high school we had a teacher who could never control his class, so to make up for his incompetence and lack of authority he would frequently cane students, whether they deserved it it or not.
He wasn't so much hated by students, as not respected. His inability to show leadership led to his lack of authority and violence.
Banning smacking altogether would be an overreaction, but limits ought to apply.
Parental punishment exceeding one or two smacks on the legs or lower torso should be outlawed because it is becoming an assault.
The proverbial clip under the ear should be outlawed. It is an attack on a child. It is not a remedial action.
Just as our children need to know the boundaries we've established for their behaviour, so do parents need to know what is acceptable and what is not.
Such is the rights of the child _ a consideration far more important than any precious feelings and sensitivities of parents and guardians.
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