Britain’s House of Lords has put new limits on corporal punishment of children in the UK by their parents. Previous law, over a century old, had allowed parents to hit children as “reasonable chastisement,” but the new law puts further restrictions.
The discussion offered the Lords two options — to approve an outright ban on hitting, or to back a new law that would permit such punishment provided it did not cause physical or mental harm. Any striking that caused bruising, scratching or reddening of the skin would be unlawful.
“The question is whether all parental smacking should constitute a criminal offense even where it does not cause physical or mental harm,” said Lord Lester of Herne Hill, from the Liberal Democrat opposition, who, like Mr. Blair, opposed a total ban.
“Reddening of the skin”? Yeesh.
I’m not a big supporter of smacking around your kid, to be sure. I’ve not (yet) spanked Katherine — but I do, when it seems appropriate, use a flick of the finger to an ear, or back of the hand. That’s reserved for cases where verbal “chastisement” or time-outs have proven inadequate or infeasible.
But I’d much rather see that decision be my decision, and not be second-guessing to what degree someone might consider a particular action “unlawful” or abusive. And, for that matter, given that the corporal punishment unleashed on my own posterior in my youth cuase some distinct “reddening,” I find it difficult to reconcile my own interpretation of that experience with someone’s conclusion that it was physical abuse that would now require intervention by the law.
(via Cronaca)
We have at total ban here in Denmark, and it works. It’s not the “normal” parent that gets questioned, but it keeps those with a violent strike from, yes, striking their children. It becomes the norm, that you don’t do it, not even what you do, Dave, and that’s good. Then maybe someone does as you do anyway without being put to prison, but you get my point, I hope? We danes are very fond of our freedom and individuality, and we don’t feel restricted by this law. Well, maybe a few of us does, the ones who should!
Imagine you as a group, being discussed: Shall we ban hitting the Daves or should it be allowed to hit them, without any visible damage?
I’m glad you feel the current Danish law works. Certainly nobody (least of all myself) want to let parents actually abuse kids. However, I have less faith in the court system and overzealousness by government workers, police, or busy-bodies about what actually constitutes abuse, than you.
Drawing the analogy with an adult is dubious. There’s any number of things that society does to kids, or allows to be done, that would not be tolerable with adults. I would be quite unhappy to be compelled to go to school, prohibited from operating a motor vehicle, or be subject to any parental chastisement (whether a spanking or a time-out) at this point in my life. That, as a kid, all of those things were proper doesn’t make them proper for me, today, and just because they’re not proper for me today doesn’t mean they also weren’t so when I was 8 years old.
No, but it’s a good exercise in seeing things from other groups point of view! 😉