She slapped a three year old across his back...

Hitting the child hard across the back was wrong in my estimation. But my parents use to paddle us kids on the butt (and threatened to do so more than they actually did) when we would get out of line, and we all came out OK.

Quite often parents and children don't know the diferance between spanking for disipline and abuse. Spanking isn't an effective form of punishment. It incourages viloance and teaches children to fear their parents which is something that shouldn't ever happen, but it does. There are more effective methods of teaching a child right from wrong ones that don't involve physical vilance.

I am in favour of discipline but not of physical punishments. Especially if these are young children. A slap in the back might damage his spine. I can understand that parents can lack patience, be stressed, because of their work, their relationship problems and to add it up all, ill behaved toddler. But one must remember that kids are kids and need time to adjust and behave well. I would discipline my son by not allowing to watch his favourite tv programme or not allowing to play his favourite game but I am not in favour of any type of physical punishment.

Hi acousticSoul, I am not a believer of spanking? I have 4 grown daughters and they will tell you that I never spanked them altho I will tell you that there were a couple of occasions in which I did. One was a situation similar to the one you described in that my daughter was in danger and I went into panic mode and I reacted when I finally caught up to her by swatting her little butt. Was it right? probably not but it was my reaction. I know some parents use spanking as a regular form of discipline. I grew up in the 60's & 70's when it was pretty much the norm. My mom was the one who'd spank and slap etc. I did not feel it was abuse as I usually was warned and I was definitly wrong. My father would not spank my brothers or me. I have to say that while I never looked at my mom's way as abusive, I also only learned how to be around HER. My father is the one that made me feel guilty even when he didn't know I was doing wrong...just the thought of disappointing him made me feel bad. My father was pretty creative in his discipline tactics and they worked. I did not spank my kids not because I think its abuse but because it did not work for me so I have no reason to think it'd work for them. That being said...slapping a kid in the back is without question...abuse.

I can agree with a little rap on the hand to get the child's attention, but nothing more painful than that. And only then if the child is completely out of control.

I do not have children but I do not believe in hitting them. There are other ways to disicpline a child without hitting them over and over. I never understood when I would be in a store and a child was crying. The parent gets frustrated and hits them yelling at them to be quiet. Now if a child was crying is hitting them which cause them pain only makes them cry more. How does that stop them from crying? As to your second part about kids calling and cry abuse when it's not that makes me mad. There are a lot of victims who are being beaten and when a child or teenager makes a false report that is taking someone off of a real case to deal with some family drama. I have never been abused as a child. Yes I did get hit now beaten or as described as you told us. I think you can use time-outs. Counting to three there are other methods. And if you start using them when the child is young it is easier than waiting until they are older and won't listen to you at all.

i don't really favour physical punishment if there is still other alternative methods that we can still use to discipline the child... unless if the child really gone overboard... physical punishment should be only use as a very last resort when everything else fails and it had to be differentiated very clearly between abuse and physical punishment... i prefer to take away the privileges or something that they like to do from the child (i.e. deducting the pocket money, no TV for a week, grounded for a month, etc) as a method of punishment because it is more effective... my parents did this to me when i was still a child and it worked really well for me... take care and have a nice day...

i think it is up to the parent to handle their children the way the want. what does not go on in my home is none of my business. come on! this crying abuse thing is waaay out of hand now. everything now a days is abuse. just telling a child "no" is abuse. there is a diffrence between causing physical damage and a spanking. society once new the difference. then the cps thing started to get out of control, and stuff about kids calling the cops on their parents. now every one is scared to even dicipline a child. i was spanked when i needed to be as a child, but I WAS NOT abused. My parents didn't use this form of punishment all the time. Nor did they chose to use it as first resort, but last. i am not a violent person. i have respect for people, and have never been in jail. i am not perfect, but far from a serial killer or emotionally scared because i got spank. katherine jackson said it best, you don't have to kill em, just spank them when they need to be. bible says don't spear the rod, save the child.

acoustic soul spanking only relieves the anger of a parent, thus making the child now angry. so the child now misbehaves out of anger, more spanking only now its beating, well sooner or later the child will get big enough to turn the tables and whip or beat the angry parent. good on him or her. spanking is so stupid, it only teaches that adults can mistreat little kids and get away with it. I never spanked my son or beat him, a swat on the hand or the seat was enough and talking and explaining did a lot more good, and privileges taken away did wonders. and whoopings are never just whoopings, someone do this to an adult and let him see just how lovely that whooping was, he will come up fighting mad for sure.

I have to agree with some of these posts.Violence is not the answer.This is a small child that should of not been walking without someone holding its hand or in a stroller or something. The woman should not even have this child because this is an instance you did see, God only knows what happens to this child behind closed doors. Its frightening. This child did not learn anything then I am bigger than and I can hurt you. Children have the right to be respected as we want respected. They have the right to live in a safe environment and be loved. Children do not need to live in fear of their parents or guardians. Also emotions take over on how we react and we tend to forget the that this is child that is looking up to you for guidance. I believe that educating child would of been better. Of course we have to reiterate it over and over quite a few times so they understand. The female needs parenting classes. What would of happened if she smacked his head that hard and he fell down and he did not get back up? Who would stand up for this child. I would of called law enforcement. Abuse is not just physical, its mental. No one should be allowed to strike another person under no circumstances. I would not want to be someones punching bag, would you? I feel bad for this child.

I beleive that educating a child through violance gets the job done but makes him learn a wrong lesson. When a child gets spanked, he tends to not repeat the bad act because of fear. All kids learn to not do things because of fear, which is wrong. JKids should learn not to do bad things due to the consequences they bring. Teaching a kid through fear brings too many emotional scars. Some parents take it too far and stop diferentiating the times when they wnat their kids to elarn and the times when they are stressed. If a parent is not well minded and always hits his child, he sometimes will start to hit the kid even when he doesnt have to! Maybe the dad came home from work and is a lttile stressed, what does he do? He hits the child. Maybe he even hits the mother or the dog! The act of hitting a child becomes a bad habit and in extreme cases, turns into domestic violence. If that still hasn't convinced you, look up on the internet for cases where a mom hit her kid so hard, he broke and arm or started bleeding or something of the kind. The fotos are just horrible and breathtaking. If the aprents do choose to educate a child through the act of hurting him/her, they must know how to controle themselves and must learn to not hit for any little thing.