Comments on: Don’t Smack Your Kid Around, Hero Mother

By: MRDA

MRDA — Sat, 16 May 2015 12:11:35 +0000

I’m not so sure your racial analysis holds up, given the prevalence of pro-corporal-punishment sentiment I encounter from folk of all shades of the rainbow. Were mum and son several shades lighter, I bet a huge contingent of white conservatives would be cheering at a similar volume.

Not that I approve of corporal punishment/smacking either – things could’ve been derailed with less extremity – but i) it was a pretty heated situation where worse injuries could have ensued for someone or other had he been left to his own devices, and ii) you need more than one isolated endorsement to damn said endorser(s) as racist.

By: Trish

Trish — Tue, 12 May 2015 00:16:35 +0000

Suspended – that was beautifully stated.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 11 May 2015 04:32:58 +0000

Disagree. Depends on where you grew up. I grew up in the hood. My brother hung out on the corner with the homies. My little mom would march over to that house in her robe, knock on the door and call for him “GEORGE!!!!!” and out he’d come totally pissed and embarrassed BUT it stopped him from going over there. Forty years later, all those guys are in prison and/or dead. And she could throw a brush at you that could round a corner a bean you right in the head LOL! It was different in the 70’s. There was no way she was going to lose her son in a drive-by, which in my neighborhood occurred all the time. My two cents.

By: Suspended

Suspended — Thu, 07 May 2015 22:37:08 +0000

I’ve never had to smack my child and wouldn’t anyway. Why an adult would ever think it ok to slap a tiny person is beyond me. The hatred and resentment that grows from that is cruel, ugly and deserving. Why would you want to do that to someone so precious to you? Why do it to yourself?

I’ve always found on the very rare occasions where a lesson had to be learned, compassion and love were a far stronger tool. A child needs your love most when he deserves it least. Something stinging for a few minutes could never be equal to reaching into the heart of something. By showing compassion, you’re teaching your child the power of compassion, not brutality, and that is something that elevates their humanity, not degrades it.

This probably sounds preachy, not my intention, but I’m pretty shit at conveying my thoughts.

Let me put it another way. I see kids that are a handful and I see parents at the end of their tether and it’s hard and stressful. I get it. Something I’ve never seen is a kid that responds well to being hit. No person responds well to it. It doesn’t quell a situation, it only gives rise to another. A lot of these parents don’t take the time to address the child’s needs. They have no idea how to, so they just lash out. No doubt it’s what their parents did before them but what they need to realise is that that child is a person, a person that still has a lot of things to learn and mistakes to make and doesn’t have the body of experience to express everything in the best manner. Cut them some slack and they’ll probably cut you some too. Life should be more pleasant. Make it more pleasant.

By: Luzie

Luzie — Thu, 07 May 2015 13:26:07 +0000

“And by the way, don’t think that small children don’t, deep down, appreciate a smack from time to time.”

Are you nuts, David Duff?

By: Bessie the Cow

Bessie the Cow — Thu, 07 May 2015 00:03:32 +0000

I condemn every form of child abuse: hitting, smacking, verbal abuse, ect.; however, if my kid was in great danger then any thing goes to save him from that danger. Including smacking him upside the head. Race has nothing to do with it. The women in the video from South America where Hispanic. They were slapping them and hitting their kids with their purses. No parent wants to see his or her child in jail or in a dangerous situation. I saw the mother fighting to protect her child using whatever means necessary. Every situation is different. No, don’t smack your kids because they spill the milk or disagree with you, but in a precarious situation do what you must do to protect your wee one even if he’s six foot tall.

By: David Duff

David Duff — Wed, 06 May 2015 15:27:56 +0000

Don’t be silly, Sis! Anywhere on a fleshy part of the body with an open hand – and as many times as it takes for the lesson to sink in! If the lady in the photo had done that when her oafish son was very much smaller she wouldn’t need to be doing it now.

And by the way, don’t think that small children don’t, deep down, appreciate a smack from time to time. It shows you actually care about what they are doing. It also shows them the bars of the cage, so to speak, in which they exist. Those ‘bars’ which they love to kick against actually provide them with a sense of security.

By: Sister Wolf

Sister Wolf — Wed, 06 May 2015 08:25:12 +0000

David – In the head? How many times in a row? With swearing? At what age do you stop? Do they have a right to hit you back? If not, why not?

By: David Duff

David Duff — Wed, 06 May 2015 08:21:15 +0000

Well I don’t care whether they’re black, white or polka dot, for the right reason at the right time ALL children deserve – and need – a good whack.

By: Sister Wolf

Sister Wolf — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:49:30 +0000

Again, if the mother and son were white, it would be seen as child abuse. To commend black mothers for hitting their sons is the worst sort of racism, in my view. It’s saying, “You need to use brutality on black boys/men to keep them in place.’

Perhaps these young black men who are smacked around at home are the ones who will then smack people around in their homes when they get married and have kids.

‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’, eh? Not in my world.