Nick Clegg: "we don't smack our kids"

First topic message reminder :

12th December 2013

No surprises - the man is a complete wet lettuce.


But he said he and wife Miriam have never smacked their sons, Antonio, 11, nine year-old Alberto and Miguel, four.



'It can be very frustrating but the way that I and Miriam and I choose is not by smacking. I do not use a wooden spoon'



Speaking on his weekly LBC 97.3 radio phone-in, he was asked by listener Rachel in Barrow if he smacked his own children.

Mr Clegg said: ‘No, like all parents I sometimes have to restrain myself if they don’t go to bed on time or do their homework. But no, we do not… No, I don’t smack my children.’

He said he had also not been smacked as a child: ‘No, I don’t ever remember my parents doing that. My parents were quite strict but their authority was such that they didn’t need to.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2522461/Nick-Clegg-I-smack-sons.html#ixzz2nGfnF9MN

@irn bru
a stern voice and a good talking to are great IF they work
but what happens when the kid compeletely ignores your stern voice and good talking to?

I would not authorise a teacher to.

@Sassy
distraction works too, I am of the opinion all options need to be available.

veya_victaous wrote:@irn bru
a stern voice and a good talking to are great IF they work
but what happens when the kid compeletely ignores your stern voice and good talking to?

I would not authorise a teacher to.

@Sassy
distraction works too, I am of the opinion all options need to be available.

Hi veya,

The same question applies if the 'light smack' doesn't work as well. Do you increase the pain threshold until you get a result?
If it gets to the point where nothing is working then there are obviously problems that need to be looked into in more detail.

no   the smack is only used after the stern talking to has failed, So I am already got one more tool to use than you. But for the sake of argument I would them try grounding them. If that failed Hold them upside down by the ankles  :<:i}: 

veya_victaous wrote:no   the smack is only used after the stern talking to has failed, So I am already got one more tool to use than you. But for the sake of argument I would them try grounding them. If that failed  Hold them upside down by the ankles  :<:i}: 

I don't think anyone is going to change their position on this and as we are all different then I suppose the answer is to do whatever works for you.

As I've said earlier I don't believe a child should be smacked if they are old enough to be reasoned with. Smacking a 12 year old is out of order   

Costa wrote:

BigAndy9 wrote:

Vintage wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:Hit your child, they hit their brothers or their sisters and they in turn hit other children believing that hitting people is a solution. It's not - it solves nothing.

Completely disagree, they don't, there's whole generations who've grown up smacked on occassions and we all understood the difference between hitting as a solution and as a punishment, we have not grown up to be axe murders or even to fight or hit anyone else, its like all punishments it has to be done at the right time and the right occassions. I can say all of my peers were smacked - rarely it must be said and only up to a certain age and they are all pretty decent people who've managed to bring up decent children, some of whom smacked some didn't, the children are well behaved, the same can't be said for many children I see around today, their language and behaviour is pretty bad, most shops won't allow more than two inside at a time during school lunch hours. I prefer other punishments but wouldn't condem a parent a short sharp slap (on the legs or backside) if they think its justified. Its time people realised there's a huge difference between a corrective slap and a beating.

Excellent post Vintage.

How strange that the group of posters on here with such similar views on so many different topics all said they disagreed with smacking, that they had done it "once or twice" etc etc.

I very much remember every child I knew when I was growing up saying they had been smacked - it was the norm.  Did I live on another planet?

No Andy, you did not live on another planet .... I too, was smacked lightly as a child. I have 2 children and one of them, yes I have smacked on occasion and the other a complete no. Reason being, they were like chalk n cheese.

But as other posters have pointed out, of course there is a complete difference from a light smack to beating a child hard.

I was going to say similar Costa, it certainly was not unusual among my peers when I was a child. As was receiving the cane etc in school.

Not that I ever did you understand, I was a good girl  :D 

NemsAgain wrote:

Costa wrote:

BigAndy9 wrote:

Vintage wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:Hit your child, they hit their brothers or their sisters and they in turn hit other children believing that hitting people is a solution. It's not - it solves nothing.

Completely disagree, they don't, there's whole generations who've grown up smacked on occassions and we all understood the difference between hitting as a solution and as a punishment, we have not grown up to be axe murders or even to fight or hit anyone else, its like all punishments it has to be done at the right time and the right occassions. I can say all of my peers were smacked - rarely it must be said and only up to a certain age and they are all pretty decent people who've managed to bring up decent children, some of whom smacked some didn't, the children are well behaved, the same can't be said for many children I see around today, their language and behaviour is pretty bad, most shops won't allow more than two inside at a time during school lunch hours. I prefer other punishments but wouldn't condem a parent a short sharp slap (on the legs or backside) if they think its justified. Its time people realised there's a huge difference between a corrective slap and a beating.

Excellent post Vintage.

How strange that the group of posters on here with such similar views on so many different topics all said they disagreed with smacking, that they had done it "once or twice" etc etc.

I very much remember every child I knew when I was growing up saying they had been smacked - it was the norm.  Did I live on another planet?

No Andy, you did not live on another planet .... I too, was smacked lightly as a child. I have 2 children and one of them, yes I have smacked on occasion and the other a complete no. Reason being, they were like chalk n cheese.

But as other posters have pointed out, of course there is a complete difference from a light smack to beating a child hard.

I was going to say similar Costa, it certainly was not unusual among my peers when I was a child. As was receiving the cane etc in school.

Not that I ever did you understand, I was a good girl  :D 

Ha I believe you!

I remember the one and only time I got the belt at school. It was in my last year, and was leaving the school grounds one day when this boy asked me for a light for his fag. A teacher spotted us ..... he got 6 of the belt for smoking a fag, and I got 3 of the belt for supplying the light!   

Well, this is how one father disciplined his son in China... I would not have been able to stand there and do nothing!

Nine-year-old boy is CHAINED to a tree, stripped and whipped by his father in freezing 5C temperatures... for skipping school


A furious Chinese father went perhaps a little too far when he stripped his truant son to his underwear, tied him to a tree in a busy street, and whipped him.

The nine-year-old from Nanchong, in south-west China's Sichuan Province, had been caught out skipping school for several days without his parents' knowledge.

The picture taker, Lin Gang, said that the temperature was only 5C when the all but naked child was tied to the tree and beaten.



Corporal punishment of the kind meted out to the Nanchong boy is lawful in China, although there are legal provisions to prevent excessive child abuse.

The law even goes to far as to allow authorities to order parents to subject their children to 'strict discipline' if they are guilty of serious misbehaviour.

Traditionally, corporal punishment is common among Chinese families, although attitudes are beginning to change in the country.

According to the father, his son had been absent from school for several days without his knowledge, and the boy didn't even come back home the previous evening.

In the morning, the father saw his son wandering the street. The boy tried to run, but his father caught him and beat him.

With onlookers' interference and persuasion, the father soon untied his son and took him away.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523252/Chinese-boy-9-chained-tree-stripped-whipped-father-skipping-school.html#ixzz2nOfrRyBh

Costa wrote:Well, this is how one father disciplined his son in China... I would not have been able to stand there and do nothing!

Nine-year-old boy is CHAINED to a tree, stripped and whipped by his father in freezing 5C temperatures... for skipping school


A furious Chinese father went perhaps a little too far when he stripped his truant son to his underwear, tied him to a tree in a busy street, and whipped him.

The nine-year-old from Nanchong, in south-west China's Sichuan Province, had been caught out skipping school for several days without his parents' knowledge.

The picture taker, Lin Gang, said that the temperature was only 5C when the all but naked child was tied to the tree and beaten.



Corporal punishment of the kind meted out to the Nanchong boy is lawful in China, although there are legal provisions to prevent excessive child abuse.

The law even goes to far as to allow authorities to order parents to subject their children to 'strict discipline' if they are guilty of serious misbehaviour.

Traditionally, corporal punishment is common among Chinese families, although attitudes are beginning to change in the country.

According to the father, his son had been absent from school for several days without his knowledge, and the boy didn't even come back home the previous evening.

In the morning, the father saw his son wandering the street. The boy tried to run, but his father caught him and beat him.

With onlookers' interference and persuasion, the father soon untied his son and took him away.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523252/Chinese-boy-9-chained-tree-stripped-whipped-father-skipping-school.html#ixzz2nOfrRyBh

That's not discipline, it's physical and mental abuse