Vocal Voices

Smacking a child in Scotland is now set to become a criminal offence, following countries such as Sweden and the RoI.

I'm not entirely comfortable with this - it does seem like a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Beating a child is already against the law, rightly so, but a tap on the hand in chastisement? A criminal record for that?

What do you think - is it going to lead to a new generation of out-of-control kids? Or a huge increment in children removed from their parents by Social Services?

Hmm thought I had just done a quick reply but it's not there.

I was saying that I 100% agree with you. Many kids these days already cause havoc because they know the law can't touch them. This is just playing into their hands

Maybe they need to reduce the age of legal responsibility to 12... that would then counter balance

What a load of rubbish ! (Not you, Meriad!)

Is giving the cane at school a criminal offence now? - Yes, of course.

It seems that everything today is aimed at making sure no one is ever punished for being naughty.

They'll be sending criminals to Holiday Camps next.

AliasAggers wrote:They'll be sending criminals to Holiday Camps next.

That's already happened Aggers! Thankfully I think it was a one off but still....
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... fence.html

meriad wrote:Hmm thought I had just done a quick reply but it's not there.

I was saying that I 100% agree with you. Many kids these days already cause havoc because they know the law can't touch them. This is just playing into their hands

Maybe they need to reduce the age of legal responsibility to 12... that would then counter balance

Something needs to change and soon.

Shannon, Tom's girlfriend, works in a museum and it's her job to guide and educate school trips.
Last week a Year 6 girl, that's the last year of primary school, called her a boring bitch.

Plato - "such trifles do add up: the teacher, in such a case, fears his pupils and fawns upon them, while pupils have in low esteem their teachers as well as their overseers; and, overall, the young copy the elders and contend hotly with them in words and in deeds, while the elders, lowering themselves to the level of the young, sate themselves with pleasantries [563b] and wit, mimicking the young in order not to look unpleasant and despotic"

I do think there is a bit of this going on today. Youth is worshipped. Children are deferred to imo when a teacher calls his class "guys".
But children need rules and boundaries.
Politically speaking and with such groups as extinction rebellion, children seem to be being weaponised. "My future is being stolen" and all that.

Very true, Crommers. The world turned on its head.

I'm going to say my wee bit on this.....(never normally responding on this board) (especially recently with all the Br**it cr*p)

Ok. Call me old fashioned.

I was brought up with my sister and a lovely mum and dad. Mum was definitely the 'boss' and dad was the softy.

Mum being boss meant we never did anything really 'wrong'. Yes, silly things but absolutely nothing that would have us suffering the wrath of our mum. Mum had a 'look' she'd give us that put the fear of God into us that would stop us in our tracks. Our parents installed in us respect and good behaviour.

It sounds so naff now but there was never any need to be smacked because basically we behaved. I know some of my friends were smacked but it just didn't happen in our house.

Basically we were well behaved and respectful girls.

Fast forward nearly 30 years when sis and I had our own children.

I have never smacked my children nor felt the need to.

I'm not painting my kids to be angels...I had a 7 year old and bonkers twins but was always able to reason with them, talk to them and parent them in a way that didn't involve physical force. Reasonable or otherwise.

This is just how I've been brought up, how I brought my kids up and I'm sure how my boys will bring any future children up.

Respect. A small word. But with huge meaning.

That's great, Ally, but would you say the "fear" (if I can put it like that) that your M might have smacked you if you'd misbehaved had a big impact on you? If you had seriously misbehaved, would she have done, do you think?

TheOstrich wrote:That's great, Ally, but would you say the "fear" (if I can put it like that) that your M might have smacked you if you'd misbehaved had a big impact on you? If you had seriously misbehaved, would she have done, do you think?

No Ossie.

I never feared mum.

The biggest impact misbehaving would have done would have been letting mum (and dad) down.

It's all relative now but sis and I (having always been close) but since mum's passing are looking back on our childhood constantly and absolutely know we respect and admire mum's hard working ethic, strictness (but not too strict) and she has definitely made us the women we are today.

And there we go......that word respect.

Total respect for my parents.