Comments on: Smacking is back! http://www.justice.net.nz/justwiki/smacking-is-back/ Standing Just Where We Are Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:22:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Charlene http://www.justice.net.nz/justwiki/smacking-is-back/comment-page-1/#comment-14455 Charlene Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:48:29 +0000 http://www.justice.net.nz/?p=1777#comment-14455 Indeed a poorly worded question but perhaps, as you note, it provides the opportunity to open up a debate that is bigger than to smack or not to smack. Researchers (see http://www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-smackban.html) from Otago University found, from a review of 49 studies, that smacking was consistently linked to negative outcomes such as higher rates of bad behaviour in the week they were smacked, and lower rates of internalised morality, that is an understanding of why a behaviour was wrong rather than avoiding the behaviour for fear of the consequence. Physical punishment was also associated with low self-esteem, depression, anti-social behaviour and aggression in children, and also in adults who had been disciplined as children. The research evidence is consistent to the extent that it has been described as "indisputable". The only "positive" outcome of smacking was immediate compliance. The US has recently justified its use of torture as acceptable because it is effective. Yet, I am side-tracked, I am arguing against smacking. The questions that must be asked are not just to smack or not, but what is the goal of parenting? Is it immediate compliance, that my child jumps when I say jump? Or is it that my child is able to empathise with others, that she learns to act according to an internal compass of right and wrong regardless of who is watching, and even that he learns to question what those in authority would say? What is the goal of parenting? The enforcement of rules or the development of relationship? How wonderful would it be, if we went beyond questioning to hit or not to hit, to consider how our theology informs our parenting beliefs and practice, to question where our culture positions parenting in the ranks of money, time, and status, and to present to our communities a new view of parenting. A counter-cultural view of parenting, with relationship at its heart, may well present the gospel sufficiently that we can do away with preaching. And even smacking. Indeed a poorly worded question but perhaps, as you note, it provides the opportunity to open up a debate that is bigger than to smack or not to smack. Researchers (see http://www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-smackban.html) from Otago University found, from a review of 49 studies, that smacking was consistently linked to negative outcomes such as higher rates of bad behaviour in the week they were smacked, and lower rates of internalised morality, that is an understanding of why a behaviour was wrong rather than avoiding the behaviour for fear of the consequence. Physical punishment was also associated with low self-esteem, depression, anti-social behaviour and aggression in children, and also in adults who had been disciplined as children. The research evidence is consistent to the extent that it has been described as “indisputable”. The only “positive” outcome of smacking was immediate compliance. The US has recently justified its use of torture as acceptable because it is effective.

Yet, I am side-tracked, I am arguing against smacking. The questions that must be asked are not just to smack or not, but what is the goal of parenting? Is it immediate compliance, that my child jumps when I say jump? Or is it that my child is able to empathise with others, that she learns to act according to an internal compass of right and wrong regardless of who is watching, and even that he learns to question what those in authority would say? What is the goal of parenting? The enforcement of rules or the development of relationship?

How wonderful would it be, if we went beyond questioning to hit or not to hit, to consider how our theology informs our parenting beliefs and practice, to question where our culture positions parenting in the ranks of money, time, and status, and to present to our communities a new view of parenting. A counter-cultural view of parenting, with relationship at its heart, may well present the gospel sufficiently that we can do away with preaching. And even smacking.

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