nuggety goodness wrote:i'm with you on that one FC... even the bible says to smack your kids...
'Spare the rod, spoil the child'
And in this case I'm prepared to agree that the bible speaks wisdom.

My old man kept a sturdy stick in the corner of the kitchen. If I had been a naughty boy - not an uncommon occurrence - I was commanded to "go and get the stick". Like Jesus himself, I had to bring the implement of my own torture to my own personal Golgotha. My old man is a hardcore catholic; the scripture was not wasted on him. After handing over the weapon, there would be much lecturing about my sins, gesticulating with the stick all the while... until suddenly it was brought down heavily on my legs or arse. If I was lucky then the old man was quick and he'd connect first strike. If I was unlucky then I'd have enough time to react and involuntarily get my fingers in the way first. This hurt like all buggery; and while I was screaming and shaking my newly sore fingers, the old man would make a second strike on the intended target.
This form of discipline was unpleasant, certainly. Nevertheless it endowed me with a mortal fear of physical discipline. I lived in constant terror of getting the 'cutts' at school, and consequently was the most well-behaved little swot. I still managed to cop a teacher's palm on my arse once or twice * - and in all cases the behaviour which led to said application was altered.
Decades after those heady days, and now being a father myself, I occasionally joke to my old man that he should give me the stick as a hand-me-down, a family heirloom. I could belt my kids with the very same implement that was used to belt me. In one of life's great ironies, he is absolutely mortified by the idea. I get the impression that he thinks he was a little too heavy handed and that physical discipline ought not be administered as freely as he did.
To which I say - sod that. A good belting is but one weapon in the arsenal of parental discipline. Admonition, being sent to one's room, losing property or priveliges are also such weapons and usually preferable. Rest assured however,
IF and
WHEN the time comes, I shall not hesitate to apply the slipper to one of my own kid's arses.