I came across a discussion on TV yesterday that stated that MP's were thinking of passing a bill where smacking would become a criminal offence like assault and i thought to myself this people have come again.As it is their society is facing a moral dilemma and so many other societal ills and all they can think of is making it worse by making smacking your own child a crime.excuse my vernacular but na wa for this people.Yeah i agree that sometimes smacking a child should not be the option quickly reverted to when trying to correct a child but i really thinks its ridiculous when the government try to take over how parents raise their children.As it is these kids have no respect for anyone,their parents,their teachers no one.Their behaviour is really appalling and all this is because they know certain laws are put into place to protect them which i feel is counter productive.Parents and teachers alike are already scared of chiding their wards due to this same government interference.Yeah i agree that sometimes some parents pass the borderline(my mom did sometimes,i remember having slippers,omorogun and sometimes paper being flung at me in annoyance: still love her to bits though)but alll the same i believe parents should be given a free rein on how to raise their kids without having the constant fear of the government.

My husband was born in the Uk but one thing he is forever grateful for is the fact that he was taken back to nigeria before hitting his teenage years.He recognises that this action moulded his character better than if he had been fully raised here.His mom was very strict and he says he was sure he would have been fostered if they had stayed back in the Uk.My mom was very strict on me as well, a liittle to the extreme but i realise that that kind of discpline is necessary for children.We all knew we had boundaries in our house and my dad was the saviour for we kids sometimes.Ha my mother ,nowadays when i tell her things i remember from my childhood she laughs and sometimes denies being that strict.But the good thing was she was also approachable,she made you know why you were being punished and also rewarded you if you were good.I believe that control(not too sure if that is the correct word to use) is necessary for children,for them to have an authority figure in their life to have an healthy fear of.So if govermnet says smacking is a crime you would have an 7yr old calling the police on his m
other,his mother would be arrested and then chargerd(what a laugh).

Me and  my hubby have concluded that when the kids are getting to 2 we would make sure yoruba would be understood and also know that little things like gently smacking his fingers and pointing to what he/she did wrong would be ways to let the child know that smacking is not strange occurence.Also if we are in public word like'so fe jegba'meaning do you want to be smacked would convey meanings when misbehaving.Also if we still live here would want them to go back to nigeria for their secondary school education and God sparing my mom, have a dose of her during their mid-terms .So do you think the UK goverment is right for wanting to prosecute parents for smacking their kids?( the operational word here being 'smacking' not  full fledged 'caning' as some of us had from our parents)

I thought this was already being done. I know for sure it's being done in the U.S
Despite all the child social services scares, people still beat their kids.
Notice i used the word beat and not spank.
A typical african/african american can beat the living daylight out of their kids. It's a black thing and it definitely WORKS. I've seen a 12yr old being spanked in the mall.
If your kids get to the age when they can call social services on you, this is what you do :
Let them know that it will take social services a while to get to your home and you will utilize that time to"koboko" his/her yansh back to africa.
Like a comedian once said, you can always block 911 on your land phone, lol

On a more serious note, kids should be spanked because it serves as a deterrent to serious ills that they can perform. This doesn't mean you should beat your child because he/she came 2nd and not 1st in school!!!

A typical african/african american can beat the living daylight out of their kids. It's a black thing and it definitely WORKS.

definitely look at the state of africans and african americans today. that spanking sure made them violent peaceful

I will smack my child if he misbehaves, who cares about the government.

When I was child, my dad and mum smack me with atori and koboko, the naija kid's in the diaspora are so spoilt and ignorant.

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For the average child (noted there are children who have ADD, behavioral problems, autism, etc), the environment in which he/she grows up and what is seen as common/generally accepted plays a role in behavior.

We've only spanked 2 or 3 times, not because we don't see bad behavior in action but because here in North America (don't know of other continents other than Africa), the schools encourage kids to be in tune with their feelings, they encourage them to communicate and voice out issues. As a result, kids display a higher sense of maturity in their relationship with adults and this gives us parents the opportunity to hold them accountable for bad behavior by speaking directly to their sense of right or wrong, punishment through "time-outs", denial of TV/computer privileges, etc. Spanking thus becomes the child is unable to relate hitting with correction. As we all know, spanking is a lot about intimidation and though this was the method of correction/punishment I was used to growing up, now it really does seem like a violent way to react to kids' bad behavior. Even in Nigeria, everyone knows that kid who doesn't cry when spanked and who doesn't change.

Yes, I am a Nigerian and I am saying all this, but I also acknowledge that I would probably be of a different mindset if our kids were born and raised in Nigeria.

If you don't discipline your child, he or she has will not know what's right, and what's wrong. There are so many bad influence in societies outside of Nigeria, and you find many children who aren't disciplined by their parents, failing in school, joining gangs, doing drugs, etc. . . An occasional whoopin' puts a fear into your kids, that almost assures you they won't be open to the many bad influences plagued in the western society.

@ Blackspade

I'm in total agreement that discipline is necessary but I disagree that spanking is the only way to achieve it. There's no study/research that supports spanking as the most effective/best method of discipline and it certainly does not necessarily prevent the kinds of societal ills you have described.

Before I came to live here, if someone had told me spanking would not be the method of choice in my household, I would have laughed at them. That's why I said the environment contributes to what you as an individual will see as effective.

My philosophy is live and let live, you will never hear me tell someone not to spank their children. If na you born am, na you get that right!

rasmur5:

@ Blackspade

I'm in total agreement that discipline is necessary but I disagree that spanking is the only way to achieve it. There's no study/research that supports spanking as the most effective/best method of discipline and it certainly does not necessarily prevent the kinds of societal ills you have described.

Before I came to live here, if someone had told me spanking would not be the method of choice in my household, I would have laughed at them. That's why I said the environment contributes to what you as an individual will see as effective.

My philosophy is live and let live, you will never hear me tell someone not to spank their children. If na you born am, na you get that right!

Spanking may not be the most effective way but it is definitely more effective than talking to the kid, grounding, taking away games and all that nonsense
Well i guess we shall see. Be sure to update us on how ur techniques turn out on your kids.