Did any of you ever get slapped as a child?

Wooden spoon and the poker at home. Long ruler and duster in school.

I was and each of my siblings was, and we are all totally opposed to it now.

Saw something interesting on the topic a while back, considering whether slapping or hitting your child taught them to not behave inappropriately. The gist of it was before you raise your hand, consider whether you can reason with the child instead. If so, that's what you do even if it doesn't work, and if the child is too young to be reasoned with, then why in the name of christ would you hit them in the first place?

If you're slapping your child, you're doing so out of your own inability to control your temper. And while parenting tests the limits of your patience etc etc, let's not pretend it forms part of a thought out parenting strategy because it "didn't do me any harm".

voldejoie wrote: »

If so, that's what you do even if it doesn't work, and if the child is too young to be reasoned with, then why in the name of christ would you hit them in the first place?

Ideally grounding them would work better but what if a child ignores the threat of grounding. It's not nice hitting your child but a very small smack sends a clear message to the child.

Smacks on the bum for being a silly bugger.

Did me no harm whatsoever.

freshpopcorn wrote: »

My great grand father had a job before at making the straps for the schools!

No one thinks of that, the loss of the jobs in that industry, it was probably a roaring trade back from eons ago right up until, well the noughties?

This is it wrote: »

Plenty of ways to discipline a child without resorting to hitting them. If a parent uses hitting a child to teach them, they're failing as a parent.

Agreed, I hope I always can resolve problems, teach and discipline my child by other means, physically beating them isnt the right answer, got the wooden spoon a lot myself from the mother,as we all did, physically I dont think it did me harm, but I think its a bad example to set children, Im not sure what it taught me, looking back I think she had other options and didnt know better, up against it with kids as a single mother, now my dad less so when he was around, the fear would scare you more, and the times he did were not pleasant, he used a belt, I couldnt do that to my son.

janfebmar wrote: »

I got hit on the head by a catholic teacher in school.

The catholics, probably had extra training for that, the sick baxtards.

road_high wrote: »

Often slapped and the wooden spoon the most common weapon.

The wooden spoon, I used to love getting the cake mixture off them before they were cooked, its amazing how such an innocuous item is so tied to child discipline in Ireland.

voldejoie wrote: »

I was and each of my siblings was, and we are all totally opposed to it now.

Saw something interesting on the topic a while back, considering whether slapping or hitting your child taught them to not behave inappropriately. The gist of it was before you raise your hand, consider whether you can reason with the child instead. If so, that's what you do even if it doesn't work, and if the child is too young to be reasoned with, then why in the name of christ would you hit them in the first place?

If you're slapping your child, you're doing so out of your own inability to control your temper. And while parenting tests the limits of your patience etc etc, let's not pretend it forms part of a thought out parenting strategy because it "didn't do me any harm".

Agreed, I now threaten to tickle my son to death if he is cheeky, but I encourage him to express his thoughts, opinions and feelings, that said he'll be told if he is bold, feel lucky as he mostly isn't bold, he laughs and I still can get a cuddle and a hug and no resentment nor guilt, I ask him if Im being mean by tickling him, he says he doesnt mind and I definitely dont overuse it as I think that can be a bit mean, but he does say Im going to kill him with it, I think it is better than inflicting pain by slapping, I could never use a belt on my son like I got, even the wooden spoon.

Yer Da sells Avon wrote: »

I was slapped as a child and it did me no harm. It did no good either. It became a sort of 'cat & mouse' thing, being chased around the house by my mother and her wooden spoon, goading her into hitting me a second time because 'that didn't hurt'. It also meant that me and my siblings hit each other a lot when we were younger, because 'that's what you do when someone annoys you'.

The cat and mouse around the dining room table, brings back memories, if you werent the one being punished, you were sent on a mission of catching the sibling who was, Ireland had a lot to learn in child discipline back then. The only time it never hurt was when I had a toffee bar in my arse pocket and I feigned pain, usually punishment was 3 slaps and if you got your hands in the way, it was a wrap across the knuckles and another for not letting it happen, sick really

Musefan wrote: »

A reminder that slapping a child is now illegal in Ireland. There is no good reason whatsoever to slap a child. 50 years of research cannot identify a single positive outcome. If you’re slapping your child, you’re not teaching them to behave appropriately. In fact, you’re teaching them that an appropriate action when being annoyed is to slap someone. Then a child is likely punished for taking the same action and hitting a sibling. You would press charges if another adult slapped you. Hence why it’s now illegal.

It’s not, and that’s not the reason why the defence of reasonable chastisement was removed as a defence to a charge of child neglect either.

The rest of your post is just your opinion which isn’t worth a whole lot either way tbh, particularly when there is plenty of evidence to suggest quite the opposite of what you’re suggesting - the vast majority of adults understand the difference between discipline and child neglect, which is precisely why even though they may have been smacked or neglected as children themselves, they know better than to do the same thing to another adult.

It’s something the vast majority of people actually do learn as children, so it’s not something that should be used as an excuse to explain the minority of people’s misbehaviour as adults. 50 years of biased “research” doesn’t prove anything one way or the other only that confirmation bias based upon ideology is rife in social studies.

bee06 wrote: »

We used to get threatened with the wooden spoon by my mother but I can’t remember if she ever actually slapped us. Maybe a tap.

A tap is a slap

This is it wrote: »

I said hit because when you slap someone you're hitting them, I didn't label it as anything but bad parenting.

There are plenty of ways to discipline a child without hitting or slapping them. Unfortunately it's what some parents resort to.

There comes a point when taking something away or raising your voice just doesn't work.

It shouldn't be a solution to every problem but it happens.

Theres a difference in a slap and losing your **** and beating someone.

Kids aint stupid they know what they can get away with and how far they can push you especially in public.

This is it wrote: »

I'm not here to change your mind, some parents think it's ok or necessary, I think it's bad parenting.

Its not necessary but sometimes it just happens. I never do it and feel good about it afterwards. I normally always feel bad in some way most of the time but only because i dont like seeing them upset.

Thing is i always sit down and explain to them straight away i dont like having to do this its not what i want to do but you push me so bloody far some times even though ive told you so many times to stop and you dont listen.

I was never abused as a kid my ma and da done everything for us but ya you had a certain amount of fear of what your da would do if you ****ed up.

My best example would be my granny never hit me but because she was strick and very prim and proper i always had that bit of fear of her more then i had of me nana.

End the day id kiss the ground the two of them walked on they where both amazing people who i loved so much and would never change a thing about them but one had that extra thing about her that you just felt i better not mess up around her....

Thing was i didnt hold it against her or love her any less for it.

This is it wrote: »

If it's not necessary then why do it? If it "just happens" is that you losing control?

You're coming off worse with every post.

To some i come off worse with most posts on here sure! Im not here to make friends or win popularity contests.


If i lost control i would be losing my **** with them all time but i dont. It takes a lot for me to get up and slap them. Usually i deal with it in other ways.