The Government has announced new guidelines on how parents can physically punish their children. Education Reporter Lyn Barton examines the issue of corporal punishment in the home and speaks to a family who feel it is a parent's right to smack a child.

WHEN THREE-and-a-half-year-old Emma Smith threw herself on the floor of a shopping centre and beat her fists and feet on the floor in a tantrum, her mum Karen knew the only thing to snap her out of it was a gentle slap on the wrist.

What she was not expecting was to be accused of being a child abuser.

"Emma was at the age when she was trying it on a bit and she threw a real wobbler," she said.

"I tapped her on the back of her hand and told her to stand up and this woman came up to me and said I was abusing my child and she was going to report me.

"I was really shocked. I was trying to control my child and I did not hurt her."

The incident reveals the polarity with which people feel about hitting children as a form of punishment.

Some parents say you should never physically chastise a child, others believe a smack as a last resort is a parent's right and duty.

Mrs Smith firmly believes that in the judicious application of a gentle smack is the best way to administer discipline when reasoning with a small child has failed.

"I am not saying hurt them or bruise them or anything like that."

Mrs Smith, 28, of Woodhouse Walk, Keighley, has three children; James is seven, Emma is three-and-a-half and 22-month-old baby girl, Syndell.

She said: "I think I am a good parent and I do it for their own good."

She is totally behind the government's guidelines, which state that using a slipper or the belt is totally out of the question.

She said: "That is just cruel. I don't know how anyone can beat a child with them. But it is not the same as smacking."

Mother-of-two Lorraine Clarke, of Haworth, believes administering any form of physical punishment on a child is abhorrent.

"I believe you should not smack a child at all because I think the whole thing perpetuates violence," she said.

Mrs Clarke, who has a five-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son, said there was no place in the family for violence.

The Government yesterday outlined proposals to outlaw the use of any implements to beat children in a consultation paper on physical punishment.

It follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that a father who beat his son was guilty of assault.

In the English courts, the father secured an acquittal on the common law defence of "lawful correction" and "reasonable chastisement".

On the other hand, the court decided the beating was in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the freedom from "torture or inhuman or degrading treatment".

However, the court also made it clear that the ruling did not intend to ban any form of physical punishment.

The Government said while the overwhelming majority of parents knew the difference between smacking and beating, the aim of the exercise was to make the law clearer.

T&A Opinion

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