An acquaintance of mine re-posted this on Facebook:
Now I won’t post his name but he’s very well known in some circles and I find his condoning of this quite disturbing. Blaming all the countries woes on parents not hitting their children, seriously? I don’t condone hitting children at all, one only has to look at the recent events in Southern California to see how a simple slapping regime can descend into child abuse.
Socrates wrote around 425 BC: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Not much has changed in thousands of years!
Perhaps not unsurprisingly there were a few that agreed with the post, well two actually. Here are some sample comments from them:
“some times the kids need it, you mamby pamby generation of wimps are producing disrespectful little mummies boys and fucking up the country“
On saying that I never have and never will hit my daughter, I got this response:
“I never hit my daughter either ever but boys you sometimes have to”
Naturally I asked, “Why do you have to hit boys?”
“because sometimes they need it that’s why”
And that folks is the pinnacle of his argument and justification.
Having said earlier in the conversation that it was my belief that violence towards children didn’t discipline them and in fact was more likely to make them believe it’s OK to strike out, he added this gem:
“I had the cane every day at school”
I’m not surprised he thinks hitting his children is OK.
“Grow some balls fella…you sound everything that’s wrong with society!“
I’ve lost count the number of times these guys called me a snowflake or not a man because I don’t hit my child. Needless to say as their arguments crumbled they turned to personal attacks and wild assumptions including claiming my daughter smokes – she doesn’t and as a completely non-smoking household we’d know the second she walked in the door.
No I’m sorry, the problems we are facing today are due to cuts. Cuts in Policing, cuts to local government, cuts to the NHS and general under funding where it matters at the grass roots, not because parents and teachers don’t hit children.