I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a parent, and I’m not entirely qualified to tell parents how they should go about raising their kids. But I will say this: I’ve known many parents who have successfully raised decent, respectable, well behaved children without ever raising a hand to them, so I know it can be done. And I feel like that should really be the default state, rather than having this big debate over whether parents should be allowed to hit their kids or not. But there is definitely a debate!
On Thursday, Scotland became the first country in the U.K. to pass a law making it a criminal offence for parents and caregivers to physically punish their kids.
The new law has reignited debate in the country over “reasonable” discipline for kids. Green Party representative John Finnie, who proposed the new legislation, said “Violence is never acceptable in any setting. Physical punishment has no place in 21st-century Scotland.”
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While they may sound hard to argue against, the law does have some opposition.
Opponents from the Conservative Party and the Be Reasonable Scotland group warned of “good parents turned to criminals” and police having to deal with trivial cases instead of “genuine child abuse.”
A pair of mothers recently had the debate out on Britain’s ‘This Morning.’
Claire Muldoon, a journalist, and mother of four argued in favor of parents being allowed to discipline their kids how they see fit.
From her perspective, the law seemed to be an example of excessive government inference.
“I definitely think it is Big Brother honing in on this and every loving parent would use some form of physical chastisement — not always but if it’s suitable.”
“This whole thing stems from love,” she continued.
“If you had a friend who was doing something that was harming themselves — you would hope that a friend would say, ‘look let’s be honest, your behavior is wrong.'”
Taking up the counterpoint on the show was broadcaster and mother of two Rebecca Wilcox.
She recalled a moment in which she had hit her four-year-old after he spilled water on her laptop, saying it was her “biggest guilt as a mum,” and that it made her feel like a “hypocrite.”
“I remember it was all about my loss of control,” she said.
“Yeah, he was misbehaving. Yes, he was doing something wrong. But I’m the adult. I should know better.”
As for the self-described hypocrisy, this response came as a mixed message compared to what she had taught her child.
I’m constantly saying, ‘Don’t hit your brother, don’t hit your friends, don’t hit me.’ What am I doing? Biggest hypocrite in the world.”
The fear in her child’s eyes in that moment also stayed with Wilcox and she said the child hit others more often after that incident.
Watch the entire exchange below, and let us know what you think!
