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Is light smacking an appropriate way to discipline children?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Should smacking be a crime?
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By MSN NZ staff

Prime Minister John Key says a new review will allow parents to discipline their kids with a light smack without fear of being investigated and prosecuted for doing so.

Mr Key presented the findings of the review into how the anti-smacking law is being used yesterday, according to media reports.

Mr Key said it showed parents were still able to lightly smack without fear of police action against them, despite the strict letter of the law.

If that changed, he said, he would change the law, as he had promised.

"Lightly smacking a child will be in the course of parenting for some parents and I think that's acceptable,” he said.

“It is up to individual parents to decide how they're going to parent their children ... Some people will continue to lightly smack their child for correction, some will not. It is up to them to decide."

The Government ordered the review following an anti-smacking referendum held in August this year.

The referendum question asked: Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

Some 87% (1.47 million) of the 1.68 million people who voted in the referendum were against smacking of children being a criminal offence, according to official figures on the Election NZ website.

Mr Key said the government would adopt the recommendations in the report, including a helpline for parents facing investigation.

Is light smacking an appropriate way to discipline children? Have your say below

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User comments
There is a huge difference between smacking and beating, Personally speaking ive been smacked harder than a light smack or a beating, but ive grown up that my father or mother still care for me and i dont feel any hatred towards anyone. I think we are giving to much power to the kids, that now can threaten there parents for smacking them. Ive been smacked and beaten till about a 13 i think or more, However i dont feel i was abused. Just telling anyone who is interested that what happened to me, i accept it because i wasnt old enough to make the correct decision(s) or choices.
yes. *light* smacking should be tolerated. noticed as soon as this non smacking law popped up. kids are now lil sh.ts.
I was watching an american program and while it was about the FBI and crime fighting. The crack team managed to save a woman from being murdered. The female FBI agent said the woman would survive but she would be emotionally scarred however, just as the show was finishing, one of the actors said the most profound thing I have ever heard "that scars are reminders of where we came from and not necessarily where we are going to". I was raised in a alcoholic, physically violent and emotionally abusive atmosphere however, this is not the kind of person I am today. My point, there is a difference between smacking and BEATING. Not all children who are raised with smacking as a disciplinary action turn out to be criminals. Some children who are raised without discipline do end up being criminals because their parents never disciplined them, so why should anyone else and then they go around thinking they can test the law, in some cases, to the detriment of their freedom.
Smacking a child should be reserved only for situations where the child, or others around the child would be halmed by the childs behaviour. It is not ok to hit a child for language or other such behaviour why should a child be physically halmed for doing something that does not physically halm anyone else?? I was smacked as a child and was do not at all hold this against my parents, however when I was a child my grandmother smacked me for pulling a face at her out my bedroom window, I was 4, and pulled playfull faces at my parents all the time. To this day I still dont like her, i do not fear her i just have no repect for her as a person. Also, I think that while there are some parents who smack with reason and explain to the child what they are doing wrong, the majority smake becuase they get so angry they lose it, this is no different from a child hitting another child because they are angry. Anti smacking bill should stay.
My mother smacked me and my siblings and always drilled into us the reasons for disciplining us so harshly. We use to compare our bruises as a way of proving who was tougher. Now, in my adult life, I look back and realise how much of a pain in the *** I was, giving my mother stife. My mother disciplined me and I'm glad that she never held back. At the time I would be balling my eyes out begging for her to stop, but now, I can laugh because I am older and wiser and realise I deserved it n more. I'm not scarred by that, if anything, it has helped me to be more respectful towards my elders and authourity and to my mum. I don't fear my mum, she is my rock! I look at the younger generation now, and pity them, they have little or no values, they are spoilt, look at the violence escalating in NZ, the youth gangs are getting worse and parents can't do anything because these kids are hiding behind the GOV bull**** laws. Don't cry when NZ make the guiness book or records for raising hellraisers
greeting from dk, folk can try to defend their right to" light hit" their children, and proclaim that it is responsible behavior for a adult! or are they just helpless individuals who do not know what to do or how to respond when their children become unruly? hitting is violence! nothing else. yours peacefully, pete pax.
a smack wont hurt anybody god i have 3 kids and smacked them all and they all fine.theres a diff between smacking and bashing and its bashing the goverment should do something about.never mind theres some poor toddler dying around the corner because he was beaten so badly but lets go punish that mother for smacking her child on the *** for running out infront of the car.get over yourselves the kids these days have way to many rights they walk all over there elders and there is no respect in the schools and its only going to get worse because of people like(no smacking) are bringing in all these stupid laws.go do something usefull with your spare time like help a old lady with her bags.I had a very good friend in primary school he was 10 when his father pulled him from our disco dragged him to the car and bashed him then took him home to lie on a already bloodstained bed to die,so nxt time u no smacking lot say smthing bout a mum smacking i suggest u think again.....
I don't see the harm in smacking your child for being ***. I really can't remember being smacked as a child growing up but I do remember a steel capped boot up the backside, which wasn't physically painful just hurt me inside as I never liked my dad being disappointed in me. I do smack my children but I honestly don't think it's working as I have to keep doing what they are doing. A light smack on the hand used to work when they were three and five but now that they are eight and ten, they are not feared by me when I do this. They are more feared by me when I yell at them which I think is worse than the smacking. I can see me as a child in them, when their father smacks them, it's like a real disappointment to them for disappointing their father. We can't have an anti smacking law as the children will take this for granted.
There is a difference between a light smacking to be being beaten.
There is nothing wrong with a light smack, its common knowledge that the pathetic anti-smacking bill did nothing to deter lowlifes killing and seriously maiming their kids. To be made out to be a criminal just because you give your child a harmless little smack is beyond ridiculous. There is a huge difference between a smack and a beating. I have never smacked my 2 year old and I don't think I will by way of punishment but that's not to say that it is wrong to do so.

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