Will a Law Against Smacking Really Protect A Child?

Recently I came across a number of articles advocating the need for outlawing smacking in the United Kingdom. A bill was introduced in the parliament to stop by law the smacking of children; thankfully the British parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly 424 to 75 against a complete ban on smacking. I am no advocate of smacking and do believe that hitting children not only hurts physically but mentally too. However I feel strongly that no law could guarantee a child security. A child is a fragile being whom the parents need to nurture with their love warmth and care.

The greatest need for a child is to get the undivided attention of his parents. In these times few parents are able to devote sufficient time, energy and patience to deal with their children. Parents who tend to spend less time with their children cannot fathom their needs or their irrational behavior at times .Such parents declare the child to be a problem child and try to contain the child by strict punishment. It is surely wrong and unfair to punish a child for responding in a natural way to having important needs neglected. For this reason, punishment is not only ineffective in the long run, it is also clearly unjust. Children must receive sufficient time and attention from their parents, who are often too distracted by their own problems and worries to treat their children with patience and empathy.

Here I feel the need is for more parents counseling, right from the beginning of pregnancy. The parents –to-be should be involved with the various phases the fetus goes through, the emotional and physical disturbances the mother goes through as the pregnancy progresses. The father should be prepared to provide ample support and help after the birth of the child. A new born baby till it becomes a toddler takes quite a lot of energy for the mother to look after. It is too much to ask a battered woman for patience and love. Therefore to have a happy family the mother needs to be given adequate rest and solitude to revitalize her. Parents who are alcoholics or drug addicts also need to be encouraged to get rid of these habits as these could cause them to behave in an irrational way. In many cases, of so-called "bad behavior", the child is simply responding in the only way he can, given his age and experience, to neglect of basic needs. Among these needs are: proper sleep and nutrition, treatment of hidden allergy, fresh air, exercise, and sufficient freedom to explore the world around him. But his greatest need is for his parents' undivided attention.

Some parents take spanking to be a "necessary evil," that is, the child needs to be spanked to groom him or her into a mature and law abiding citizen. Perhaps, the reason for such a high acceptance of spanking may depend on the fact that parents love their children and care immensely about how their children turn out as adults. To achieve this purpose, parents wouldn't mind spanking if that's what it takes to fashion their child into a proper mold. Extensive research data is now available to support a direct correlation between corporal punishment in childhood and aggressive or violent behavior in the teenage and adult years. A punished child becomes preoccupied with feelings of anger and fantasies of revenge, and is thus deprived of the opportunity to learn more effective methods of solving the problem at hand. When we make a child afraid; we stop learning dead in its tracks.

Gentle instruction, supported by a strong foundation of love and respect, is the only truly effective way to bring about commendable behavior based on strong inner values, instead of superficially "good" behavior based only on fear.

The gist of the matter is spanking is to be avoided. If parents knew the risk they were exposing their children to when they spank, I am convinced millions would stop. A law to that effect would also decrease the rate of spanking as parents would be scared to punish .But this would cause irreparable damage to the fabric of a child parent relation It is also to be noted that if parents are to be held responsible for their children's behavior until they turn 18, then they must have the right to control that behavior by gentle persuasion and in extreme cases by mild spanking or other suitable disciplinarian methods.

The need of the hour is for parents to be counseled regarding how they could cope with children during their different developmental stages in a better way. They could also be apprised about the need to reduce physical forms of punishment which may do more harm than good.