It was announced today that Scotland is going to be the first part of the UK to outlaw smacking. This is great news. New Zealand banned smacking in 2009 as has most of the rest of the EU. Australia, as usual, is years behind everyone else; you can still hit children there.
I told the kids this evening that it’s going to be illegal to smack children in Scotland and Daniel’s response was, “What’s smacking?”. When I explained, Elizabeth replied in a shocked voice, “People hit their children?????”.
It’s not necessary to hit children and outlawing it will give children the same legal protection as adults. In making this change we’re creating a society and a culture where physical violence is unacceptable. That’s the kind of society I want to live in.
rachel.blog 
Well said. đź‘Ź
My parents used to hit me and I remember thinking – could you not just have asked me to do the same thing without hitting me, and I would have done it? Also they were usually angry at the time and that’s a really awful combination.Hitting children feels so fundamentally wrong to me. It used to upset me so much when people condoned it. (I’ve got less emotional about it now but the principle is still strong for me.)
Yes, I used to get hit too. All the time and very hard. Mostly it was for silly reasons which could have easily been explained in words. It is so fundamentally wrong in the same way it’s wrong to kick your dog or cat.
I am sorry to hear that you were hit. Credit to you for growing up to challenge it and not following the example.
Thank you. I still think I had a very fortunate upbringing compared to many others but I’m very happy I’ve brought an end to the cycle of physical punishment for children.
That’s horrible. I hope it didn’t affect your relationship with your parents too much.
Smacking was banned in my daughters’ school over 20 years ago (South Africa).
The sad thing was that teachers were no longer allowed to touch kids at all – not even to put an arm round a child in comfort if they were crying because their Granny had just died.
They caned kids when I was at school in the UK. That was brutal and often done in front of the whole class.
Still, the fact that Daniel has to ask what smacking is, suggests that it isn’t going on in their schools.
They definitely do not hit children in schools here and I have seen teachers hugging the children. My daughter often gives her teachers a hug and I’ve never seen them pull away so thankfully it’s ok here. Caning children in front of the whole class is terrible.