Smack Down

Yeah I know it's been a while, but hey, better late than never.

Anyway the main thing that I've been thinking about a lot lately is the so-called anti-smacking bill that is before parliament at the moment. Basically for those who aren't aware of what I'm talking about, we currently have a bill before parliament that is wanting to remove from law a clause (not sure if that is the correct term) that says parents are allowed to use reasonable force to discipline their children. There have been a few cases where parents have been acquitted of child abuse because of the clause.

So of course people are up in arms about removing parents' rights to smack their children, about how this will turn parents into criminals, - the proponents suggest it will better enable us to prosecute child abusers and of course deny that it will create criminals of 'good' parents.

Well here's my opinion. I think that the bill is a waste of time, money and energy for one reason and one reason only. That is that the people who commit serious child abuse, and I mean the 'beat them senseless' couldn't give a rat's backside whether it is legal to hit their kids or not. If they did, then they wouldn't be doing it in the first place. The people that do it aren't worried that the kid is going to be taken away from them when they lash out. All they care about is making the defenceless little sod pay for whatever misdemeanor they have committed.

So OK the two major political parties have got together and made an amendment to the bill that means the police can use their discretion on whether to prosecute or not - this is supposed to appease the opposition to the bill. I call political point-scoring on this!! The amendment isn't going to prevent John & Mary Toogood from being investigated by the police and CYPFs when they give young Johnny Jnr a whack on the hand at the supermarket because he just wouldn't stop pulling things off the shelves. In fact if somebody was to complain then the police are obligated to investigate. Hands up here who wouldn't mind being part of a police investigation? Not me, that's for sure.

So once again the people who are generally lawful are going to be punished while those are breaking the law anyway couldn't care less if they have another conviction beside there name. I liken it in some ways to the micro-chipping of dogs debate, which is supposed to give us better control over dogs' whereabouts. From all I've read the dogs that are causing problems are either A: unregistered, in which case they are hardly likely to line up for microchipping or B: registered, in which case the owners are easily tracked down and prosecuted anyway - so the current system should work fine.

So back to the smacking debate. Many years ago we did away with corporal punishment in schools - teachers were no long allowed to strap or cane a child. I can't remember the reasons for this, possibly along the lines of - abusive, violence begets violence, children's rights etc, which are all very honourable reasons. The question I'd like to ask now is: How are we doing with that? Are the children of today more respectful of their teachers and for that matter anybody in authority than the children of say 20 years ago? We hear so much talk about children's rights and protecting children, that we've forgotten that they are children and as such need to understand that some things, although painful, can be instrumental in learning to be an adult that contributes to society and doesn't just take from it. Like falling out of trees, falling off bikes, and a smack on the backside for being defiant of your mother.

When an adult breaks the law, they are dealt with through the justice system and on the whole it does a reasonable job of issuing consequences for the adult's actions, whether it be a fine, community service or jail-time for the more serious offenses. However when a child does something wrong, while we are OK for the misdemeanors, the more serious offenses have been left without an equivalent consequence. As such children quickly learn that the adult they are defying are basically powerless to correct their behaviour and realise that the power has been shifted to them. Are the able to use that power sensibly - the behaviours we see in today's children would suggest not.