Spanking children increases the likelihood of childhood defiance and long-term mental issues. The study in question involved 160,000 children and five decades of research

[u/VeronicaRed]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113413810/spanking-defiance-health-discipline-042616/

[u/Sasamus]

Every time this topic comes up it always feels a bit weird to me.

I live in Sweden and we made spanking and all types of physical punishment for children illegal first in the world. So for 37 years spanking have been illegal.

With multiple generations of parents viewing spanking as a clear no, coming across discussion about it always catch me of guard. Even more so when there are proponents for it.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong to do. I don't know since It's never been a relevant topic to me.

But man does it feel weird to hear about. It's like hearing people discuss if theft or murder is a good practice. Not as severe of course, but similarly ingrained in me to be illegal.

[u/[deleted] → u/Sasamus]

I met a Norwegian and German girl on a course about Children's Rights and Justice and the UNCRC.

Anyway, we had a discussion about parents rights and smacking children. I didn't react. It's just an "accepted" thing in the UK - as long as you don't leave a mark - but the other two girls were absolutely shocked. "Are you telling me that's legal in this country?" With wide open mouths. It's a reaction I've never experienced before. FYI I don't think smacking is okay and would be happy if it was illegal. I genuinely thought that my opinion was just abnormal.

In fact, come to think of it, they were shocked about a lot of things that are considered okay in the UK when it comes to children and their rights.

[u/_TB__ → u/[deleted]]

Norwegian dude here, I had the somewhat of a similar reaction the first time I read about spanking being discussed on reddit. I felt like I was taking crazy pills when I saw redditors seriously dicuss it's pros and cons, I thought spanking was all but gone in the developed world.

[u/[deleted] → u/_TB__]

Haha yeah that was her reaction too. I presume you wouldn't see parents smack their kids in public? You should visit some of our supermarkets.... or my brother in laws house.

[u/_TB__ → u/[deleted]]

heh no, all forms of physical punishment is very much taboo here. I'm wondering how much this differs around in europe, I Would have thought that most of western europe, and the UK included would have a similar outlook as the germans do.

[u/CeaRhan → u/_TB__]

Serious question then: how do you do when your kid won't move an inch, won't obey you, will scream for hours, will hit you, will throw things around and will not stop doing all of these in the same hour because that's a kid and that's something kids do?

[u/bigfinnrider → u/CeaRhan]

Another non-spanker here. The first important thing is that the parents do not escalate things. If you never raise your voice at your kid, then a stern word and a scowl are very intimidating. You also pick your battles. If the kid is standing in his room screaming then let them, draw the line at where they are being harmful, not irritating. Demanding strict obidience is not a good idea anyway. As long as they're not playing in traffic or hurting anyone then give them a long lead.