Mum smacks child, faces assault charge

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

A Victorian woman has been questioned by police and threatened to be charged with assault after hitting her 9-year-old daughter with a wooden spoon.

Claire Davidson was warned by police that she risked an assault-with-a-weapon charge after her child revealed in a classroom discussion that her mother hit her with the spoon.

Ms Davidson said she was shocked when a support worker from Yea Public School reported the smacking to police.

"We only use the wooden spoon and that is only when she is being naughty and we give her fair chance to rectify the situation and we talk her through it," she told the Herald Sun.

She said her daughters gets three warnings and, then, "it is spoon time."

Ms Davidson of Flowerdale, north of Melbourne, was told by police she would be charged with assault if another instance of her daughter being hit with the spoon was reported again.

The incident has sparked a debate about smacking between parents and child-welfare advocates.

A criminal lawyer said that whether parents are charged with assaulting their children or not depends on how severe the smacking is.

"Just because you are mother or daughter doesn't make you exempt from the law," criminal lawyer James Dowsley said.

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Any thoughts, personally I can't see anything wrong with smacking, provided it is within reason.

[Soratsin]

Any thoughts, personally I can't see anything wrong with smacking, provided it is within reason.

I agree with you there, but you have to admit the lawyer made a pretty good argument.

[Ontagar]

Beyond stupid. Not the mother, but the fact she's in trouble. And you wonder why kids will do anything these days. Action without punishment? Umm... ok.

[Kobrania]

If you can't get the point through with your bare hand, dump the child at an adoption agency, she oviously doesn't respect authority and doesn't deserve parents./not serious

Honestly, I'd take the side of the law if it was a belt,switch,cane,birch or even a drilled paddle

But a wooden spoon? You pansies.

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

I agree with you there, but you have to admit the lawyer made a pretty good argument.

I can see the argument, but in the eyes of the law, every smack would be counted as assault.

[Libertarian Governance]

How would you like to be smacked?

[Mikoyan-Guryevich]

How would you like to be smacked?

How would you like to have an out-of-control kid?

[Kobrania]

How would you like to be smacked?

You offering?

[Ontagar]

How would you like to be smacked?

Depends on who's doin the smackin, and where... lol

But seriously... a smack with a wooden spoon AFTER THREE WARNINGS as it says... is nothing. Ditto a swat on the butt. Spankings are also being targetted, too.

[Dagnia]

I'm kind of on the fence as to whether or not corporal punishment is a good thing, but I would hardly call this woman's treatment of her kids unreasonable. The police should butt out and the government should have no say in how a mother raises her children.

[Libertarian Governance]

How would you like to be smacked?

You offering?

Yeah baby come on. If you raise them properly they will never be out of control.

[Kobrania]

How would you like to be smacked?

You offering?

Yeah baby come on. If you raise them properly they will never be out of control.

False, all children rebel in the end, it is called 'independence'.

[Libertarian Governance]

How would you like to be smacked?

You offering?

Yeah baby come on. If you raise them properly they will never be out of control.

False, all children rebel in the end, it is called 'independence'.

I have four that made it to adult hood and I say hogwash.

[The Rifle Brigade]

I'm unfamiliar with the law in the area where this occurred, but some areas have specific statute prohibiting the use of instruments in corporal punishment. (Naturally this does not preclude possibility of prosecution for using the bare hand, depending on what is done).

[Libertarian Governance]

Though I am very against the government getting into peoples business, I sort of think parents should be disciplined for beating up their children. Especially with sticks. They aren't animals they are little human beings. They are not slaves they are individuals. Just like you wouldn't want me to walk up and beat you up you shouldn't be beating up children.

Give her a dozen lashes.

[Peisandros]

It's not okay for an adult to smack another adult, so I don't see why it should be okay for a child (arguably societies weakest members) to be smacked. It seems weird to have protection for older people, but not younger..

[Kobrania]

Though I am very against the government getting into peoples business, I sort of think parents should be disciplined for beating up their children. Especially with sticks. They aren't animals they are little human beings. They are not slaves they are individuals. Just like you wouldn't want me to walk up and beat you up you shouldn't be beating up children.

Give her a dozen lashes.

I can see your agreement. I was beaten severely as a child past the point of violence. The belt across my back, being caned until blood shows etc.

I don't see how warming a child's arse with a hand or a spoon is on the same level.

[Ontagar]

Though I am very against the government getting into peoples business, I sort of think parents should be disciplined for beating up their children. Especially with sticks. They aren't animals they are little human beings. They are not slaves they are individuals. Just like you wouldn't want me to walk up and beat you up you shouldn't be beating up children.

Give her a dozen lashes.

Three times of ignorant the parents, and she gets a smack. Reasonable to me. There's a difference between a spank/smack and beating a child. If she starts pounding on the kid, then obviously that's clear-cut abuse. But a swat on the butt/a smack with a wooden spoon after ignoring the parent three times? That's very reasonable.

[Soratsin]

Though I am very against the government getting into peoples business, I sort of think parents should be disciplined for beating up their children. Especially with sticks. They aren't animals they are little human beings. They are not slaves they are individuals. Just like you wouldn't want me to walk up and beat you up you shouldn't be beating up children.

Give her a dozen lashes.

I can see your agreement. I was beaten severely as a child past the point of violence. The belt across my back, being caned until blood shows etc.

I don't see how warming a child's arse with a hand or a spoon is on the same level.

Meh, I also got the belt across the back & ass, I wasn't bothered by it tons, all it really did was deter me from doing whatever it is I did to get the whipping.

I consider the verbal abuse I got as a kid to be far worse than the corporal punishment.

[Libertarian Governance]

Though I am very against the government getting into peoples business, I sort of think parents should be disciplined for beating up their children. Especially with sticks. They aren't animals they are little human beings. They are not slaves they are individuals. Just like you wouldn't want me to walk up and beat you up you shouldn't be beating up children.

Give her a dozen lashes.

I can see your agreement. I was beaten severely as a child past the point of violence. The belt across my back, being caned until blood shows etc.

I don't see how warming a child's arse with a hand or a spoon is on the same level.

One of my sons was beaten and abused by his dope fiend grandmother. So, I do feel for you. Spanking teaches kids to be violent and accept violence as a solution to their problems. Children are blank states when they enter the world. They become what you make them. If its so cool to hit kids what the hell is wrong with hitting my wife when she gets out of line. Both solutions come from the same ideology of dominance over other weaker individuals.
Why do you need a weapon to hit someone 3 or 4 times smaller than you. Does the child know Karate?

[Kobrania]

I am not violent, tetchy yes, but I am a pacifist.

I have never once seen a source paralleling violence and corporal punishment.

[Peisandros]

Though I am very against the government getting into peoples business, I sort of think parents should be disciplined for beating up their children. Especially with sticks. They aren't animals they are little human beings. They are not slaves they are individuals. Just like you wouldn't want me to walk up and beat you up you shouldn't be beating up children.

Give her a dozen lashes.

I can see your agreement. I was beaten severely as a child past the point of violence. The belt across my back, being caned until blood shows etc.

I don't see how warming a child's arse with a hand or a spoon is on the same level.

One of my sons was beaten and abused by his dope fiend grandmother. So, I do feel for you. Spanking teaches kids to be violent and accept violence as a solution to their problems. Children are blank states when they enter the world. They become what you make them. If its so cool to hit kids what the hell is wrong with hitting my wife when she gets out of line. Both solutions come from the same ideology of dominance over other weaker individuals.
Why do you need a weapon to hit someone 3 or 4 times smaller than you. Does the child know Karate?

Bolded for a good example of my earlier post.

[Peisandros]

I am not violent, tetchy yes, but I am a pacifist.

I have never once seen a source paralleling violence and corporal punishment.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/353973 The intro states it pretty clearly..

[Libertarian Governance]

I don't know I tend to go by what I see and experience along with a little common sense. Think about this: Sexually abused children are likely to be abusers according to tons of studies. Why would it be different with hitting? And those that tend to support beating their kids weren't you also beat as kids?

[Kobrania]

I am not violent, tetchy yes, but I am a pacifist.

I have never once seen a source paralleling violence and corporal punishment.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/353973 The intro states it pretty clearly..

Recent article, it is general practice to go for articles published only in the last 10 years, as theories change.posting.php?mode=edit&f=20&p=769076#
Also, it states in ADOLENCENCE not pre-teen.
After 12-13 it starts getting awkward to spank a child, as most boys get turned on.