Smacking: the hot news topic right now

It’s certainly been an exciting start to 2010 with news that a new study has found that “children who are smacked by parents often turn out more successful than those who have not.”

Yesterday I was interviewed by Herald Sun journalist, Cheryl Chrichley on the matter. You can view Cheryl’s article by clicking here.

This morning I was also interviewed on Channel 9′s Today Show (Click here to watch my interview on the Today Show). I was also interviewed on the subject by Channel 9 News for a story that will appear on tonight’s programme at 6pm.

Based on my clinical experience, I am sure many parents will be reassured by this finding on the benefits of smacking because nearly every parent I have ever spoken to has asked me my thoughts on smacking with the underlying motive to get reassurannce.

In my opinion, smacking should only be used when it fits the following criteria:

1. It is a short smart smack on the bum or hand.
2. It is one smack and does not escalate into several hits or a beating.
3. It hurts enough to “wake the child up” but does not inflict injury.
4. It is done close to the offending behaviour eg putting hand on a stove, pulling the hair of a sibling jumping on the bed. The child must associate the smack with a behaviour that needs to be stopped.
5. The parent is relatively calm and is using it as an educative technique and is not using it to get our her own frustrations.
6. It is used rarely, like a bitter medicine which when used appropriately is helpful but when used inappropriately does more harm than good. This means maybe once or twice in a child’s life.

Since it is diffiicult to meet all these criteria, and many parents frequently use physical punishment excessively and as a first resort, I do not unreservedly recommend smacking.

So, do I recommend it in any circumstances?

Only when a young child is about to do something dangerous like putting their hand on a stove. Then a sharp smack on the hand would be  a behavioural tool which associates  an unpleasant feeling with their action. OR when a parent has truthfully tried many methods to get a child to listen and believes that only the assertion of authority with physical force will work.

What is your experience of smacking? Please let me know by posting a comment here.

Renee Mill has written 311 articles on this blog.

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