by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: January 07, 2009

In the western world there is a strong move away from corporal punishment of any kind for children and in many cases this is a good thing. The old floggings, hopefully of the past, with a leather belt or wooden rod, have no place in child rearing.

Deliberately wounding and injuring a child is not mere discipline these are the actions of sick adults, and any method of protecting the child against such actions is necessary.

But the question of parental smacking still remains debated. As most parents understand it, this means a smack with the hand on the lower part of the child's body usually the leg. If the smack is hard, it may leave a red mark.

Some experts maintain that smacking a child is child abuse, and that there is no excuse for it. But in the actual experience of parenting, smacking is sometimes the only way to enforce a valuable life lesson.

How can this be so? Life, as parents acutely become aware when they have children, is dangerous. Suddenly the home that seemed so safe and secure before the child started to walk becomes a crazy obstacle course of threats. We may be civilized, but our appliances are not.

Simple things such as stoves, heaters, crockery in the cupboard, even sewing machines and blenders, become menacing objects ready to hurt our children. The furnishing we took for granted sprout sharp corners, are too high, too heavy, too unstable and let's not even go into the dangers of glass topped tables and full length windows!

The adventurous child wants to touch and examine every thing. Suddenly we become the custodians of dangerous items and must think several steps ahead of the child. All mother's little safety guidelines come back to us. We turn the handles of pots in on the stove, place cups of hot coffee out of reach, lock away disinfectants and other potentially deadly substances.

In spite of this, according to the British Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, accidents in the home are the commonest cause of death to children under five in that country. Most of these fatal accidents occur in the living room.

In 2003, the Palm Beach County Child Fatality Review and Prevention Project (CRR) found that preventable accidents and injuries was the Number One killer of children across the USA.

You may well ask what statistics like these have to do with smacking children? Because accidents, no matter how vigilant we are, will happen. When a child runs out into traffic, its only hope is that a quick witted parent or other adult will grab it in

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