Updated: Children's Commissioner insists all forms of smacking should be disallowed

Adrian Said

May 6th 2010, 16:31

It's about time that some child's commissioner starts teaching them what are the duties rather than explaining them their rights only. In our schools, we're experiencing children abusing of their rights, with the result that the student can do whatever s/he likes without getting punished. Can someone tell me what to do when a students offend you with your late ones, with your parents and with million other things? Please stand up and start tackling this issue seriously because we're spoiling the kids too much. This is being reflected in our society where everyone is afraid of nothing and everyone is right in what s/he does and so on and so forth.

Christopher Grech

May 6th 2010, 16:02

Unfortunately, some children NEED to be smacked to know their boundaries.

It may be the LAST resort, yes, and not in favour of using physical punishment, as the first resort, neither.

This is the point that I have to stress. You cannot put all children into one basket, with varying characters and humility.

Now we are having the politicians playing child carers, who think who knows best, when God's Word, is by far the best their is.

Maybe we should learn from God's word for a change and throw out that emotional-clad psychological rubbish/theories, out of the window.

Valerie Borg

May 6th 2010, 14:50

I don't have to smack my child for my child to understand and know her boundaries. Parents and guardians need to learn other forms of discipline. The parents that have kids swearing at them at the age of 6 is because the parents don't do anything about it and then you think smacking would stop a child from swearing at their parents or caregivers. Well you have it all wrong. I hated my dad for hitting me when i was a child (and yes i still did naughhty things even though i knew i was going to get hit, kids will be kids) and there is no way my daughter or future kids are ever going to be smacked not just so they wont hate me but so they would grow to know how to properly deal with conflict in the right way. I understand it's frustrating when a child doesn't do what they are told but is it because of our own expectations forced upon our children that causes our frutration when they don't obey? Are we expecting more then what they can give at that particular age.

Christopher Grech

May 6th 2010, 09:58

I am in no way in favour of extreme phyiscal punishment, but taking even the milder option redundant by law, has consequences. Smacking must only be used appropriately, and in the right measure, to humble the child, into not doing it again.

What if a child hits his brother/sister with something that could kill him/her? What would one do, just stop them?

No wonder teaching in the UK and Malta is a high stress job. PSD teachers stress this no-hitting agenda, and along with political correctness, this is MOST evil!

What this boils down to, is the LAST safety valve of discipline, should words not correct children!

Ms. Zammit's stance is the start of an ever criminal behaviour. In mediavel days, they would whip thieves, and now as in German jails, murderers put them in cosy jails! No wonder a Russian murderer once quoted: "Had I known the German jails to be so good, I would have killed before"!

This is what human laws do to us, perverse things, besides many issues.

To add insult to injury, via our taxes, we pay certain people to be in jail!

yana micallef stafrace

May 6th 2010, 09:58

As a rule Malta is a country where children are loved . However, I have seen too many abusive mothers ( usually men are not accompanied by small children) around to believe that all parents really care for their children. Yesterday I was shocked to find a small three year old child left alone crying his eyes out on a pavement next to a street full of vehicles while madam, his mother had walked off in a huff over 30 meters away ,for whatever reason. I felt that I had to stop and look after him myself because I could not leave a three year old on his own in such circumstances. When madam realized that other people had noticed her behavior instead of coming for the child herself she sent her other 5 year old child into the road to drag his brother to her side. She was too lazy to do this herself. I was flabbergasted.

J Fenech

May 6th 2010, 09:54

No politically-correct bureaucrat should interfere with disciplining children. Children need smacking, both at home and at school to know the boundaries of their behaviour. That's what makes them have respect for authority, a concept which is horrendously lacking in today's youth-you can even hear boys as young as 6 swearing at their parents and teachers!!! is this what we want to breed then? In my days we used to be 'semiafraid' when the teacher walked in class, and never dared to utter a 'haqq' in front of my parents-and that's how I want mine to be lest they come. Smacking is one thing, abusing is another.
Does Ms. Zammit want us to become a mini-Britain? Call me conservative, stone-aged or whatever you like, but give me that anytime over modernity and political correctness

K. Farrugia

May 6th 2010, 08:17

I am so surprised at all these comments in favour of smacking! Is instilling fear from adults the only way you know how to discipline your children? If you smack your children regularly you are giving them the message that it is ok to use physical bullying on others smaller than yourself. I have witnessed this many times - case in point, my child was being smacked in front of my eyes by a child slightly bigger than him, in order to 'teach' him that this behaviour is wrong his mother kept smacking him! How can the child understand that hitting others is wrong if this is the way he is treated?

C. Farrugia

May 6th 2010, 07:41

Extreme smacking is just as bad as giving our children all they want, with the excuse of us having lacked it in our own childhood!

Both extremes are bad.... unfortunately today's kids have grown taking it all for granted, having it all their way, materially and otherwise!! I pity tomorrow's generation where it's all about success, getting to the top, without a care of who is being trampled in the process, and lack of values and respect where it's duly called for. And even more pity, is that life is short and we all end up in the box in the end. All that's between birth and death, is the quality of life.

@ Paul Smith

In two paragraphs, you have described Malta at present, in a nutshell. Hopefully SOME people will read it and come to their senses. We are NOT better off here....no matter the survey results about how happy the Maltese are!!! The truth remains the truth.

j grech

May 5th 2010, 23:06

yes paul, malta is heading towards poverty i totally agree, and how they put up with such prices for substandard goods is beyond me, its abaout time they learnt how to protest properly by bringing the country to a halt like our protesters when fuel or taxes rise, but they wont will they as usual they will grumble and hope by giving the bullet someone else will shoot, but i have to agree that by not smacking the child and i dont mean beating then malta will have a bigger problem than the UK. since returning to malta i have found children to be rude, arrogant, unruley and totally disrespectful to their elders,children here seem to dictate to their parents and are common bullys and manipulative whingers and they did not have a thatcher as an excuse, as for maltese parents love their child i beg to differ, no seat belt because he crys, so when he goes through the window screen will the parents want symphathy,let the child walk on the outside of the sidewalk while mummy walks safely on the inside, i say a smack is less painfull than a road accident, malta is out of controll

Moses Mula

May 5th 2010, 21:40

A smack is a lazy selfish alternative to good parenting said ran one of the comments down here and I could not agree more. Probably, and I am sure that their are academic studies which confirm this, kids who get smacked and hit a lot have a bigger chance to rebel against authority once they grow up. Yes, parents are supposed to teach the rights and wrongs to their kids and children should respect their parents but smacking and such only instill fear in kids. Why should kids fear their parents? It is a process of life that the older you get the more you start thiking logical and thus you start making the right choices and avoiding to make the same mistakes. Smacking your kids will not fast forward this process. I have an autistic non-verbal 10 year old kid who like any other kid misbehaves sometimes. Instead of a smack I or her mother sit down with her and try our best to explain to her that she should behaved in a different way. It is amazing how much good these talks do. So yes, a healthy talk can do wonders, you only need to invest your time.

R Axisa

May 5th 2010, 21:16

Who said we don't have musical chairs nowadays? The Children's Commissioners appointed so far were, rightly so, not from the political arena. But it seems that things have changed. Probably it is because these commissioners so far both criticised the government one way or another. Let's see whether the new commissioner will criticise the government if necessary for the benefit of our children.

Paul Smith

May 5th 2010, 21:08

And whilst attacking the UK - look in your own back yard as your Gap between filthy rich people whom engage in corruption to line there pockets and the poor gets even wider, i simply wonder why there has not been more protests as working class maltese struggle to feed and put substandard chinese made imported clothes on there kids backs, low wages, high prices for substandard low quality foods leading to obesity not always through choice like here in the UK.
Low wages, exoborent water and electricity prices leaving people in abstract fuel poverty - the list is endless, i had to leave because i could not raise my 2 children in poverty any longer and i had an IT Position with a large maltese corp. How do the waiters live without having to work so many jobs they never have time to rest - resulting in family tension that leads to violence, i have seen it all, please don't attack me - i saw it with my own eyes.

The Workers are becoming the slaves of corruption and bankers

Paul Smith

May 5th 2010, 20:51

where do a lot of Maltese get off? Constantly attacking the UK as if you really know anything about the UK! You live in a tiny microcosm of the real world - a 22 mile long island south of sicily, majority have never left the island let alone lived abroad. If you had 1 quarter of the sane laws we have in the UK you would be a better country. In Malta you can murder someone in a motor car and pretty much walk free, pedophiles go unpunished, extreme violence is just about met with a suspended sentence, i swear malta is not some kind of utopia, just troll the TOM everyday, i bet per capita crime is higher than the UK a country with a population of 63 million people not a tiny island of 400,000 people.One of the reasons we have such youth problems in the UK is because this generation of children are the children of Thatcher's children - the women whom said there was no such thing as society and let 10 million sit on the dole and the inner cities fall to peices. Many of you have not a clue!

joe camenzuli

May 5th 2010, 20:45

Who is she to tell us parents what to do! She can take care of her kids the way she likes. We take care of ours and don't need any dictating by a person sitting in an office and not being on the spot when the need arise for a light correcting smack.

Joe Fenech

May 5th 2010, 20:33

Now that in Europe mild body chastisement is being re-admitted and when teachers are being allowed again to use mild force, we have to come up with this. Everything is 25 years backwards on this rock and we're unable to learn from other countries' mistakes. Maybe Helen D'Amato should go and spend some time in an inner-London school and look at reality in the face!

Patrick Sacco

May 5th 2010, 18:24

Luckily, she's outgoing. I agree with the maxim 'spare the rod and spoil the child' and I'm proud both my parents brought me up the way they did. I'm sure that there will come a time when today's parents will regret the excessive pampering they have given to their children. The U.K. is indeed a bad model to follow. Political correctness is pure madness!

malcolm seychell

May 5th 2010, 17:19

The authorities should do what the public wants and not what particular Ngos want

The comments here says it all very clearly what the public wants and need for a better society..

For a country to surive must do exactly the opposite of what the UK did in the last 40 years.

Jesmond Micallef

May 5th 2010, 16:39

Indeed, smacking !!

I was watching a recent Black and White German movie lately called "Das Weisse Band". It tells the story of a group of German children living in the North of Germany just before the outbreak of WW1. I remember a couple of scenes in which children were canned in a very formal manner in front of the whole family. Pretty damn sadistic...........no wonder.........I thought !!!

I read here today of smacking in 2010 Malta. Of course smacking should be dissallowed !!!

Christopher Grech

May 5th 2010, 16:27

The Children's Commissoner now wants children to do what they want?

Let us face it, today discipline is being tougher because of all of these human laws that are harmful. Nowhere in God's words, is it prohibited to hit.

Read the book of Wisdom:

30:1. He that loveth his son causeth him often to feel the rod, that he may have joy of him in the end.
30:2. He that chastiseth his son shall have joy in him, and shall rejoice of him among his acquaintances.
30:3. He that teacheth his son grieveth the enemy: and he shall rejoice of him before his friends.

Real discipline is not savagery, it is using it only to an end, to constrain the child. In 95% of cases words are enough, but we are now not living in times, whereby a mere look in the face is enough!

Now councilors advise no smacking at all costs. When the children know of this, they WILL abuse of this lacuna, should they be immune to words!

There you have it, it gets worse, no smacking may degenerate to more criminality such as the Gzira/Sliema gang.

Conrad V. Busuttil

May 5th 2010, 15:44

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

Mohandas Gandhi

Dear Commissioner, I am sure that good judgement and evaluation of the particular instance is much more in tune with good parenting, rather than feeding the young with possibilities of bullying their parents with the hinderance of particular disciplinary measures when required. I agree however that a smack must be the exception not the rule, my concern is that if a smack is a possibility, the child will know thus and therefore will have some form of deterrent in mind to assist in instilling better judgment whilst growing up.

Possibly this was what made us better stock over the newer generations, it is also the perm of respect we have to elders, at least most of those of my age.

A.Baldacchino

May 5th 2010, 14:59

Well done Carmen Zammit for all your good work. We need Children's Commissioners to be assertive, determined and ready to challenge the present system .... suggestions for reform are not good enough... change is what is needed. We cannot afford to be passive where children are involved because before we know it, they will be tomorrow's parents... so... for their sake, let us be driven by people who are not 'yes people'....

JOE INGUANEZ

May 5th 2010, 14:40

With all due respect to Miss Zammit, her parting speech as reported in your paper really disappointed me.

Can she distinguish between battering and smacking - and range of the latter. Besides how come NO ONE, not even the Commissioner for Children, ever propose that PRIVATE LESSONS should be made illegal!!!!! I am sure than in several instances PRIVATE LESSONS are harmful to a child's well-being. Do readers know that this habit is so ingrained that nowadays we have in Malta University students who take PRIVATE LESSONS as if lectures and tutorials - if they still exist - are not enough? Let our Children grow up!

victor zammit

May 5th 2010, 14:07

To smack or not to smack. A smack may do no harm but it is better not to give vent in that way. In this regard I think David Buttigieg is spot on and perhaps this is what the Commissioner meant. As to legislation I do not think one can legislate to cover all cases of smacking. Very much like smoking in the house. Or if we do legislate we run the risk of either closing one eye to the law or of having children reporting their parents. That will be the last straw. Very much like the complaint of the injured partner in cases of domestic violence. Some thought it better to remove the complaint there but, subject to correction, it was not. Better the lesser evil.

L. Dimech

May 5th 2010, 13:04

The Children's Commissioner isn't doing children any favours here. Abuse is one thing, but calling a child to order either by a punishment or a smack when necessary (many times it hurts the parents more than it hurts the child) is also a means of educating.

I do believe in "spare the rod, spoil the child". Whilst I do not condone using 'a rod' other moderate forms of smacking never killed anyone. May I remind you, dear Commissioner, of something you should know about and that is EVERY CHILD HAS A RIGHT TO DISCIPLINE.

When you meet a well-behaved normal child, who's also full of life, you are seeing the results of a good upbringing which invariably comes with the use of "the carrot and the stick".

One very important thing I found out in raising my own child is that one should ensure that not both parents are angry at the child at the same time - that should make the child feel there is someone to go to, even though the other parent will do nothing to reduce the other parent's authority.

I believe most of today's youth is a result of not enough stick being used!!

G Brewsky

May 5th 2010, 12:57

You cannot DEFINE the indefinable. There can never be a CLEAR concise distinction as it is a matter of judgment.

A mild slap vs. a whallop on the chops - yes you can see a difference but where they merge you cannot define. As such this will never be resolved.

David Buttigieg

May 5th 2010, 12:31

Smacking is a lazy, selfish alternative to good parenting!

I have three children and have never smacked them once, yet they are still disciplined, thank you very much, no less so then other children I KNOW are smacked.

All those who mention the 'gzira gang types' - what makes you say they weren't smacked? The law is not implemented yet is it?

Fortunately, we all know that it's a matter of when, rather then if, and then lazy parents will have to pull up their socks and do their job properly!

D.Galea

May 5th 2010, 12:25

It we keep on this track we might as well end up making parenthood illegal!

While condemning every sort of abuse to keep kids on a good road they must be reprimanded in a reasonable measured manner, I am sorry to break it to you, of physical restraint. An absolute lack of physical restraint is both naturally impossible and very potentially psychologically harmful for the child! Of course advocating and educating for avoidance of use of physical restraint is definitely good but banning it out altogether is something very different.

Clive Gerada

May 5th 2010, 12:20

I do not agree with violence in any context, but I think the children Comissioner is going over the limits. Sometimes a smack is needed.

Joseph Borg

May 5th 2010, 12:02

Ms Carmen Zammit has undoubtedly done sterling work during her tenure of office!
Her last statements today, however. seem to be a super-protection of children from their parents' care. I was never beaten but a smack here and there served as tangible eye-openers at my early fragile years...
One simple question to Ms Zammit (to her predecessor and to her successor): How is it that people of my age and Ms Zammit's age still appreciate our parents, while today's kids won't give a damn to anything? Why is it that we grew up revering the concept of authority, while today's kids seem to dictate whatever they fancy and, if not, find it so convenient and easy to induce "authorities" to put parents on trial???

Ms Zammit, please reply........

john borg

May 5th 2010, 12:01

dear commissioner for children;

msieken! poor poor children getting spanked! jaq this political correctness makes me sick. you dont need to pummel your kids into the dirt, but a good spanking will remind them who's boss, or else you end up with the mummy's boys or gzira youth violence gangs.

Michael Neville Cassar

May 5th 2010, 11:51

Too much kindness does not always work with children they know that they can get away by crying, lying, and other excuse, which turn them into gang groups. Word alone does not work with every child. Let the family deal with their children, however if and when there is exaggeration in their correction then by all means put the culprits to the law. Fostering does not mean that they are better then there natural father and mother, the thrum a that the children are subjected is beyond understanding apart from the anguish that the parent go through both physical and most of all mentally which is so harmful that even after 60 years can never be repaired . Ask those children which are now old as I am that experienced life without seeing his brother and mother for 57 years because the middling of a social welfare person.; If you want to help, do not deny the parents their children and play God, to hell with these ideas.

Eric Camilleri

May 5th 2010, 11:41

But cannot we at least learn from the absurd failures witnessed in other countries, UK being the case in point. The same mentality as expressed by Commissioner Mrs Zammit has brought the children's upbringing failure in the UK. What is wrong with a moderate smack that sends the correct parental message to a child who tests limits and dangers while growing up. Abuse is abuse and hurting children maliciously is criminal in my books. However a small smack never hurt more than the dangers it avoids. I recall my parents smacking me once in a while but I assure I well deserved them and I am thankful to them eternally for my upbringing. I have a nine year old and we never smacked him once because we use other tactics which I admit also work. Yet there is nothing wrong in a well meaning smack. Therefore Mrs Zammit, please end your term without making silly mistakes and consequently effecting our society negatively. If however it comes to it, then I wish you came some 30 years earlier when I was still in college and you would have saved me the occassional ruler painful palm or bottom smack :-)

charles caruana

May 5th 2010, 11:40

This is political correctness gone mad! It's an insult to the love and goodwill that a majority of parents have for their children, implying that neither they nor the legislators know 'of a clear demarcation line' between a smack and violent abuse. So let us give the State the draconian right to codify in detail the upbringing of children for us - starting by a total prohibition of smacking - an absurd and dangerous proposal if there ever was one. The only good news in this article is that the commissioner is outgoing.

Paul Vella

May 5th 2010, 11:36

From one extreme to the other and we do away with the happy medium encapsulated in the saying 'Spare the spoil the child'. I experienced the occasional spanking in my younger days but I never even dream of considering myself as having been abused in one way or another

Alfred Grech

May 5th 2010, 11:34

Let's not get too liberal and introduce irrational laws. I'm not in favor of spanking kids but the odd smack on the rear doesn't hurt a child and no one should interfere with parents on their way of disciplining children as long as the parents don't go overboard which I know the majority don't.

The kid in the photo was not smacked but was beaten which is a no no.

Please, let's not complicate the already complicated issue. Lawmakers, keep your hands off parents and deal with more serious problems affecting children.

victor zammit

May 5th 2010, 11:33

The Editorial of 5 December 2009 and e,comments to it refer.
“To chastise” by and large means ‘to reprimand severely’ (AskOxford.com), (Italian ‘castigare’, Maltese ‘ikkastiga’). Previously it meant ‘to punish, beat’ (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1958 Edition). The word does not appear in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And rightly so, perhaps. ‘Punishment’ does (Articles 2, 37 and 39. Article 19 speaks of ‘maltreatment’). There is a difference. It is reflected in Article 154 of our Civil Code which says that “…the parent, exceeding the bounds of reasonable chastisement, ill-treats the child….” (in Maltese: “…il-ġenitur, billi jagħti kastig barra mill-qies, jaħqar lit-tifel….) Which means that “ħaqar” (“he/she punished” goes beyond and exceeds “ta kastig” (he/she reasonably chastised” (notice that ‘reasonably’ further goes to mitigate ‘chastisement’. In the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 2 protects both child and parents. The punishment in Article 37 and 39 is common to all persons. Article 19 refers to “maltreatment” specifically of the child, ‘maltreat’ meaning ‘to treat badly or brutally’, which is closer to punishing physically.

Alfred Fenech

May 5th 2010, 11:31

I agree with the Commisioner that all sort of abuse against children should be stopped. One abuse we hardly ever hear the Commisioner talking about is letting children sit (or rather stand) on the back seat of cars without wearing seat belts. To me this is a very grave abuse because hundreds if not thousands of children are being exposed to these dangers every single day. It would be interesting for the NSO to give us statistics on how many people people have been fined because of this abuse over the past few years.

malcolm seychell

May 5th 2010, 11:25

What a shame.

A smack never did any damage.

Instead they make you learn.

Do we want to try and make our country like the UK?

Such laws, destroyed a country.

Mario Ciappara

May 5th 2010, 11:19

A new legislation that simply secures and justifies the position of the Commissioner for Children and the jobs of social workers while jeopardizing the role of parents in society!

The country shall definitely reap a lot from a legislation of such a kind! Keep it up Commissioner!

Darby Allen

May 5th 2010, 11:19

Is this the same commissioner who recently supported the raising of the age of criminal responsibility to 16?

I had to smack my little boy once because he was going to touch the door of a hot oven even after I'd warned him that it would hurt him; children are naturally curious, and they want to see if what Dad said will actually happen. Seems to me that a good smack was considerably less damaging than burnt hands!

Touchy-feely liberal do-gooders have ruined Britain over the last forty years or so - please don't allow them to do it here.

E.Muscat

May 5th 2010, 11:18

If you outlaw 'smacking' ,certain parents do not know of any other method of discipline,unfortunately,and there are thousands of them.
The children's commissioner should concentrate on obesityto be solved by having at least one hour of concentrated physical exercise at school in the school gymnasium ( in autumn and winter) or playground (in spring and summer).
Following what is happening in the UK, schools and all is foolish.

Becky Zarb

May 5th 2010, 11:16

As the 1st-time mother of a 1 month old, I totally disagree with the commissioner's opinions. I have every intention of "smacking" my daughter when she's older. I will smack her hand when she reaches for something dangerous or not allowed - better the pain of a smack than the pain of a burn, for example. I will smack her bum when she does something particularly naughty or dangerous. And I will smack her to teach her that something she is about to do equals harm or pain.
I will NOT whip off my belt and give her the beating of a life time. I will not kick or punch or slap her. I will not, unlike my neighbour, threaten to throw her underneath a bus, tell her I wished she would die and leave me in peace, leave her to play in filthy rain water in the street or send her to live with her grandmother because she is a burden on my social life. (Please note she's got 6 kids all from different fathers).
Perhaps the outgoing children commissioner should look beyond smacking and attempt to ban speaking to and treating children in that manner instead!!!

edward bartolo

May 5th 2010, 11:16

Oh dear me, how many parents cause a black eye to their daughters?! While using reason is the preferred way, exaggerations are never justified.

Matthew Borg

May 5th 2010, 11:10

Completely agree with comments included already. There is a difference between abuse and discipline. The force used in petty smacking is much more different than force used in abuse. The photo used in the article indicates abuse. Let us not get ridiculous.

c.camilleri

May 5th 2010, 11:08

i agree wholly with J.Mizzi. . .

Mike Gatt

May 5th 2010, 11:03

And how should parent's discipline their children? Children nowadays already have too much freedom and lack of discipline. beating a child and disciplining a child are two very different aspects. As already mentioned, us older ones lived with 'chastisement' at home and at school yet we have not all turned out as deranged monsters. Totally to the contrary to be exact.
It will start with smacking, then move on to 'no TV' and 'straight to bed without supper' until we will reach a point where parents would be totally powerless in providing a proper upbringing for their children.

K. Pace

May 5th 2010, 11:02

I completely agree with J. Mizzi and C. Zarb. My job involves going to schools on a regular basis. What a difference in todays children AND THEIR ATTITUDE, then when I was young 25 years ago..

Thanks Dad for smacking me!

R. Azzopardi

May 5th 2010, 11:01

I can never recall being hit in any way whatsoever when I was a child and yet, few people are as disciplined as I am. I was never spoilt either. Hence, I never believed in the "spare the rod and spoil the child" bullcrap.

Joseph Sammut

May 5th 2010, 10:56

Secondly I would like to ask: which is worse for a child, a smack on the bum or legs or 1) hours on end playing violent games on the computer, 2) hours on end watching TV, unattended, 3) ugly scenes at home, 4) bad examples by adults who think kids are a pest, 5) not buckling up children in the back seat and letting them stand up in the car, 6) windows open and head out of the car, 7) mobiles at a very early age. The list can go on and on.

Ramon Casha

May 5th 2010, 10:54

Why? Aren't the courts and experts capable of telling the difference between a "reasonable chastisement" and a child being beaten? One should avoid going to extremes, and that is where society is going. We are whittling away at parents' authority, preventing them from enforcing discipline, by removing their ability to resort to punishment without replacing this with something else.

That is, of course, until those children reach adolescence and suddenly find themselves facing the full consequences of the law for their actions.

C.Sammut

May 5th 2010, 10:51

I think chastisment should be defined as 'non harmful to the child in any way, does not leave marks or bruises or other internal or psychological harm'. I recently was caught in a situation where one older child was harming another younger child I was holding in my arms. We all know kids get up to all sorts of naughtiness. Verbal chastisment did not work. The only thing that worked was a harmless slap. I felt bad about it afterwards but it was a case of the lesser immediate harm. Perhaps media should be an aid on skills in such situations.

James De Giorgio

May 5th 2010, 10:48

A child commissioner whose recommendations indirectly ruin our children. Establish a demarcation line then, not outlaw beneficial occasional smacking!

Tanja Cilia

May 5th 2010, 10:46

One gets the impression that cruelty to children consists of "smacking". Alas, this is not true at all. What about psychological cruelty and neglect - ought these not to be "disallowed" too?
The visible evidence of "smacking" may or may not be visible... but there are people who are in a position to do something, who pretend not to have seen the physical effects of (at least) the other two types of abuse.

Joe Camilleri

May 5th 2010, 10:46

Reading this article, no wonder this juvenile delinquency.

Mario Spiteri

May 5th 2010, 10:45

A small smack at the appropriate time and for a valid reason, helps a child in his/her character formation. Insisting that all forms of smacking should be disallowed by such a person makes me understand why a big portion of our youths have lost all sense of values and moral.

Arthur Gatt

May 5th 2010, 10:35

The ex Children's Commissioner is really out of touch with our realities on the ground. Her predecessor was far more better and factual than this one. And I sincerely hope that her successor is much and far more better positioned to realise that Parents real parents know far more that any one person who is positioned as a Children's Commissioner. Children should be treated as children. no more no less, and no experts please.

Arthur Gatt

May 5th 2010, 10:32

Is-swat hiereg mill-genna u min iduqu jithenna. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Tell this children's commissioner that she doesn't know what she is saying and she doesn't even fit with children. Her predecessor was best suited for this job.

C.ZARB

May 5th 2010, 10:31

We should make a clear distinction between beating the hell of a child and petty smacking mainly done to frighten the kids. Mixing the two is counterproductive and equally stupid.

J. Mizzi

May 5th 2010, 10:29

As a small child I always learnt with a small 'xeba' on my legs, hand or bum.

No wonder kids nowadays do what they want - becuase children are being made gods. And the violence will continue to grow.