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Illegal to slap a child

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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 31,152 ✭✭✭✭KERSPLAT!


    I got a few slaps when I was young and as far as I know it had no ill effects on me but saying that, I won't be using it as a disciplinary tool on my young lad.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 813 ✭✭✭Gazzmonkey


    So you can't physically hit them at all now...

    Then I guess the only means of punishment left is starvation and been locked in cold rooms all day.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,450 ✭✭✭AlanG


    Parents who resort to smacking their kids have basically admitted they aren't able to control a toddler through communication and logic and have to resort to violence or the threat thereof.

    There are times when no one can control a toddler through logic. Examples would be when they persistently open their safety belt while in a car or when they run out in front of traffic. Parents are responsible for the safety of their children and logic is not always safest. How would you deal with a child repeatedly opening their siblings seat belts while driving on a motorway?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,921 ✭✭✭✭hdowney


    I too am of the opinion that a child doesn't need a smack for discipline. If you start teaching your child right from wrong early, positive reinforcement for good behaviours and appropriate punishment for misbehaviour ( such as the above no phone for a week) you should never have to resort to smacking. If you do then I think the parent needs to take a long hard look at their parenting style


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,059 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    'A few slaps never did me any harm' a few slaps won't do anybody any harm.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,130 ✭✭✭Yakuza


    Parents who resort to smacking their kids have basically admitted they aren't able to control a toddler through communication and logic and have to resort to violence or the threat thereof.

    Toddlers and communication / logic in the same sentence...?
    How many toddlers have you tried this on? How successful were you?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,763 ✭✭✭Sheeps


    smacking wouldnt happen if only the children had guns. we need the second amendment of the u.s constitution in ireland


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    The cultural Marxists see children as perfectly rational pint-sized adults who should be cocooned.

    We are making a very soft, entitled society here in Ireland.

    Not a problem in and of itself. But there are other societies out there that are not so.

    They, in time, will walk all over us.

    The selfish part of me, knowing that I won't be around to suffer it, doesn't really care.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Yakuza wrote: »
    Toddlers and communication / logic in the same sentence...?
    How many toddlers have you tried this on? How successful were you?
    Toddler logic doesn't mean, "Let's work this out over a cup of coffee", it means "there's no way in hell you're getting any ice cream if you don't sit down, now."

    No, it doesn't always work, but I don't think smacking a toddler mid-tantrum is going to do any more than change the focus of their aggression.

    What I always love about the, "smacking never did me any harm" brigade is that they can remember getting smacked, but they usually don't remember why.

    That means you didn't actually learn anything at all. And it's telling that you remember the smack but not the lesson.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,684 ✭✭✭FatherTed


    BattleCorp wrote: »
    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/ban-on-smacking-children-came-into-force-at-midnight-1.2461969

    What a dumbass law.

    It doesn't do any harm to give a child a little smack if they are bold. I'm not talking about caving in their jaw with a box, but that defense of reasonable chastisement was a good enough law.

    Why change it?

    Stupid in my opinion.

    Can I slap YOU because you don't agree with what I say? A little slap wouldn't harm you a bit, right?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,770 ✭✭✭The Randy Riverbeast


    Can't you just get another child to beat the other?

    I don't understand how when a child is unable to understand something is wrong, a slap will make them realise that the action they were doing was wrong. If they can't understand something is wrong then hitting them won't help, if they can then there are other methods.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,401 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    If he is badly behaved lukesmom is to blame not luke ...

    Blah blah blah


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 34,808 ✭✭✭✭smash


    If they can't understand something is wrong then hitting them won't help, if they can then there are other methods.

    Rub their nose in it!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,401 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    My 3 year old boy does not care if I take a toy off him or not let him have ice cream etc. He acts like a complete brat and I've tried all the other methods. The only thing that stops him behaving like an absolute pup is a slap on the a*se.
    Then he becomes an angel again!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,763 ✭✭✭Sheeps


    lukesmom wrote: »
    My 3 year old boy does not care if I take a toy off him or not let him have ice cream etc. He acts like a complete brat and I've tried all the other methods. The only thing that stops him behaving like an absolute pup is a slap on the a*se.

    you need to break him down and pick him apart with psychological torture then build him up again with discipline. take apart his favourite toy and let him figure out putting it together with one piece remaining flush it down the toilet. murder his pets. run in to his room at night with a chain saw and mask screaming. that kind of thing


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,870 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    seamus wrote: »
    What I always love about the, "smacking never did me any harm" brigade is that they can remember getting smacked, but they usually don't remember why.

    I well remember why my first class primary teacher - real nasty man, ex-christian brother I later learned - slapped me repeatedly one day.
    It was because I had stopped to tie my shoe laces and thus delayed proceedings in class by a few seconds.
    Bizarrely this was the same teacher who taught us how to tie our shoelaces.
    I challenge anyone to explain what lesson I was supposed to learn from that experience (aside for utter contempt for that meagre excuse for a human being).

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,296 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    BattleCorp wrote: »
    Why won't a parent be prosecuted for giving their child a slap?

    The law says you can't hit a child at all. It doesn't say how hard you can hit a child.

    There will be stupid prosecutions.

    Actually it doesn't - you can still claim self-defence in that you only used enough force to deter the kid when he came at you with a lego gun!

    Honestly, these things make me laugh - the state is responsible for killing more kids than any parent, but somehow they are going to tell us how to parent :rolleyes:

    And for info - I don't and never have hit my kids, I have more imagination when it comes to correcting behaviour!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 101 ✭✭Shermanator


    I got plenty of slaps when I was a kid. I got slapped by my Mom & Dad, I got the stick from my teachers in primary school and got the leather from my teachers in secondary school. I was in 5th year before corporal punishment was banned in schools. However, in my eight years in primary school I was only hit by two teachers, I still remember both of them more by the type of stick they used than anything else. Same thing in secondary school, I remember the teachers by the type of cover they had for their leathers.

    this is always going to be a difficult one to call because there will always be people who will take it to extremes. Some parents will slap as a first resort and will always take it too far. Some parents will just beat around the bush and not instill any discipline at all.
    In order to protect the vulnerable from the extremes it is necessary to legislate against slapping and this will be hard for the average parent to accept as they often feel a small tap or smack will work where other methods wont.
    However, if you have ever witnessed an adult dishing out an extreme "beating" to a small child you would now be in favor of this legislation because its not something you would want to witness again.
    Many years ago, I saw a woman (presumably the mother) walking along a foothpath with a small child. The child was on a small bike with stabilizers and was doing grand until they came to a set of steps up to the shopping centre (a dozen steps). The mother lost her rag with the child because he couldn't carry his bike up the steps and she gave him an unmerciful beating (and no, I did not stop and intervene, it was a long time ago and I was a lot younger). Now this woman clearly knew she would encounter these steps and that the child would not be able to get the bike up to the shops. so who was at fault here ? If this legislation had been in place at the time, perhaps she would not have beat him.

    Unfortunately, kids will still be beaten behind closed doors and there is no legislation in the world that will change that.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,870 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    ...I was in 5th year before corporal punishment was banned in schools...

    When was corporal punishment banned in schools?

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,401 ✭✭✭lukesmom


    Hermy wrote: »
    When was corporal punishment banned in schools?

    1982


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    seamus wrote: »
    What I always love about the, "smacking never did me any harm" brigade is that they can remember getting smacked, but they usually don't remember why.

    I got a good going over once, off both the old pair.

    Was robbing in the shop.

    Didn't do it again.

    It was robbing in the shop. I remember all too well!

    Then again I could be the crazy exception that proves a new PC rule that says something like - "physical chastisement of children is just mindless aggression and does nothing to show a child right and wrong."


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,166 ✭✭✭Tasden


    Yakuza wrote: »
    Toddlers and communication / logic in the same sentence...?
    How many toddlers have you tried this on? How successful were you?

    Yep they're too young for communication and logic to work but old enough to take a slap and understand why they were hurt by a person who is supposed to keep them safe.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 11,870 Mod ✭✭✭✭Hermy


    lukesmom wrote: »
    1982

    So I was beaten post the ban.
    Anyone know if it's possible to take legal action all these years later?

    Genealogy Forum Mod



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    lukesmom wrote: »
    1982

    And as we all know that was strictly adhered to in all Irish schools.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,370 ✭✭✭✭Son Of A Vidic


    Lights On wrote: »
    Doesn't say anything about giving them roundhouse kicks though

    The return of Facekicker?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,080 ✭✭✭✭Maximus Alexander


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    Ah clatters..... Who remembers Clatters? Aye - they were something weren't they? Get a clatter on a Saturday and the off to the chippie for fish and chips - with loadsa vinegar - they don't do vinegar like they used to. Who remembers the old vinegar they used to have before the modern muck came in. Muck? Who remembers muck - proper muck mind - not this modern muck they have these days.

    Days you say? I remember when the days were as long as the Great Wall of China, the sun'd be splittin' the stones. You'd be out at sunrise and the auld ones wouldn't catch sight nor sound of you until close to midnight. Not like these modern days, where it's dark at four and all wind and rain.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,296 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    And as we all know that was strictly adhered to in all Irish schools.

    the problem was that our school stuck to the ban rigidly - so instead of getting a few slaps of the leather when you were a bit unruly, you got detention - better to have got the slaps, imo, then spent a couple of hours picking litter or watching the walls!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,397 ✭✭✭golfball37


    Nanny State in action yet again. My wife and I don't believe in doing it with our children but sometimes it is very necessary, a small smack on the bum is far more effective than parenting by some guru book I've found, but only in extreme circumstances.

    Its absolutely none of the state's business what goes on in a family home.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 34,808 ✭✭✭✭smash


    golfball37 wrote: »
    Its absolutely none of the state's business what goes on in a family home.

    Grabbing some popcorn for this one...


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,770 ✭✭✭The Randy Riverbeast


    golfball37 wrote: »
    Nanny State in action yet again. My wife and I don't believe in doing it with our children but sometimes it is very necessary, a small smack on the bum is far more effective than parenting by some guru book I've found, but only in extreme circumstances.

    Its absolutely none of the state's business what goes on in a family home.

    Yes it is, there are all sorts of laws that prevents things being done in the family home. Just because they are your children doesnt mean you can do whatever you want with them.


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