Consultation on the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill
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Tystiolaeth i’r Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg ar gyfer craffu Cyfnod 1 Bil Plant (Diddymu Amddiffyniad Cosb Resymol) (Cymru) |
Evidence submitted to the Children, Young People and Education Committee for Stage 1 scrutiny of the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill |
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CADRP-247 |
CADRP-247 |
About you
Individual
— Partly
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
I am a father of four children who have grown up in a discipled home and now they are excellent parents themselves. The were brought up in a loving family which administered discipline when needed. and occasionally a smack to enforce the need of discipline. To criminalise smacking a child is to undermine necessary discipline in the family unit. It draws the line which tells the child the difference between right and wrong. Of course this should not be so severe that a child is marked or bruised but to enforce the standard of behaviour expected of them. It is for the caring parents to decide of whether to smack or not, and the Government has no right to use criminal law to regulate parenting.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
It appears to me that the Government is going down the road and using criminal law to regulate parenting. The reason for discipline within the family unit is based on educating a child to know the difference between right and wrong. Lines are drawn and standards are set. In this way children grow up with a definite picture of what is right and what is wrong. .
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
As I understand it the law already exists which protects children from violence. It is wrong to describe a loving smack as violence. If a child grows up devoid of discipline it will lead to a life of indiscipline and there are areas in society today which shows what happens when there is no discipline and a clear view of where a line is drawn. An ill disciplined childhood leads to an ill discipled adult, the like of which we are beginning to see in society today. This proposed law undermines society.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
I am firmly of the opinion that it does not. Look again at the result of such legislation in Sweden where violence increased after smacking was banned in in 1979.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
In any society the need for disciple is paramount. As a child I was smacked, as were most and society was the better for it. Without discipline, which sometimes means a smack, society will degenerate into indiscipline when the police service have already a huge task of keeping the law. The consequences of future generations growing up in an undisciplined society is too horrendous to contemplate.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
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(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
Only two years ago a ComRes poll found that 76% of Welsh adults were against criminalising smacking and recent polls routinely show over 80% of adults were smacked when children but did not think that their parents were child abusers. I personally look back at the discipline I received as a child and am eternally grateful to my parents.