How Should You Discipline Your Child?

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Children never benefit from being smacked, however lightly, and wherever that smack lands. Younger children especially will struggle to equate that smack with their disapproved-of behaviour. They won't understand that they are being punished, or what that punishment is for. They will, however, feel physical pain. And, worse still, they will feel frightened and humiliated, dominated by a big, loud, angry adult. Does any loving parent really want their kids to feel like this? Of course not.

Corporal punishment breaches a child’s fundamental human right to respect for human dignity and physical integrity. It is condemned by Unicef, members of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and human rights/child welfare organisations across the globe. Why? Because those organisations believe that a child should have the same rights as an adult, and because they see smacking as cruel, abusive and degrading.

Research by Save the Children and the National Children’s Bureau found that children who had been smacked on the head, face or cheek saw no difference between being smacked by a parent and hit by a bully. This is one of the worst accepts of smacking, because it teaches children that violence is acceptable and shows them you have lost control. The research also found that smacking damaged the relationship between parent and child and made the children feel they didn’t like or trust their parents as much, even if the smacking was infrequent.