Blair smacked his kids

[Sanity Claws]

The man who cooperated with * in starting an unprovoked war smacked his kids. See any connection between the two? I do.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=373730&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ito=1490

[wtmusic]

1. And everybody knows the difference between torture and "coercion", too

don't they?

[northzax]

2. corporal punshment is within the English tradition

even more so that in the US, I'd say. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Englishman over 40 who DIDN'T spank his children. Or who wasn't spanked (or even caned, the Public School tradition)

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. I'm not sure if that's true

If you moved the age limit to about 70, perhaps it would be right. Plenty of of British people still do spank their children, but many have not done since the 1960s.

Judging from what people on DU say (and they're more progressive than the average American), many in the USA regard spanking as an acceptable teaching tool - I've seen several people here say "you have to be able to spank your own children, otherwise how will they learn not to run out into traffic?" That's an attitude I've never heard in Britain - here it's a punishment, not part of learning.

Again, taking DU as representative of progressive USA, I'd say spanking is more common in the progressive USA than in the progressive UK.

[northzax]

10. well, I'm 31

and I was spanked at my prep school. (for those who don't know, English Prep Schools are to prepare you for highschool, read: elementary and sometimes middle school) My sister was spanked at hers (different school) My best friend who lived next door went to a state school. He was spanked.

not a representative sample, but I can tell you that these were not strict traditional schools (my parents were hippies, after all)

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. They banned corporal punishment in my school in about 1982

and that was an extremely traditional public school (founding member of the Headmasters' Conference). In the last couple of years before then, perhaps 1 in 10 boys got corporal punishment in their time there (though five years before that, it was more common, from what my brothers tell me). I'd guess that maybe 1 in 5 boys at my prep school before that were beaten at some stage in their time there. It was legally banned in state schools in 1986, and private schools in 1998 - by which time almost none of them were using it (they banned it at my school because prospective parents didn't like it - they told them about it long before they told us; they were happy for us to remain believing that if we went really too far we could get beaten). I was never spanked, by my parents or at school, and I'm 38, and I would say that is fairly typical amongst the people I know - perhaps half were, half weren't?

[babylonsister]

3. My parents smacked all five of us.

:shrug:

[Sanity Claws]

5. Doesn't the word smacked bother you?

It's one thing to slap a child's hand when he is about to put it on a hot burner. Or give the child one swift swat across the backside. But smacking? Am I just parsing words here or is there a difference?
Also, even if you were "smacked," is that something you condone? It stikes me as a parent acting out of control.

[babylonsister]

6. Smacked, as on the ass, and we most indubitably

deserved it. :evilgrin: None of us are the worse for wear for it, though they did manage to create two repugs.:eyes:

[Stephanie]

8. they are talking about spanking

and as somebody who once posted a spanking thread and who naively assumed that progressives at DU would agree with me that it was simply WRONG, I wish you good luck!

:popcorn:

[Stephanie]

4. I get your point. Excerpt >

And typically, it's okay for HIM, it's just when some lesser humans do it that it's a bad thing. And yes, the lesson applies to geo-politics as well.

He was put on the spot on his own methods of parental discipline by BBC2 Newsnight interviewer Kirsty Wark.

The Prime Minister was asked: "Do you smack your kids? Did you?"

When he failed to reply immediately, Ms Wark asked him: "Did it cause a problem?"

Mr Blair said: "No, I think actually, funnily enough, I'm probably different with my youngest than I was with my older ones."

Misunderstanding his reply, Ms Wark asked him: "What, you do smack the younger one?"

Mr Blair, whose children range in age from five to 22, replied: "No-no, no-no. It was actually the other way round but ... I think, look, this smacking ... I mean, I agree with what you just said, I think everybody actually knows the difference between smacking a kid and abusing a child.

"But I, if I can honestly say this to you - I think the problem is when you get these really, really difficult families, it's moved a bit beyond that."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=373730&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ito=1490

[YellowRubberDuckie]

7. It's also a difference of cultures and how we use words.

I really don't think the word smack is that weird.
Mel

[mr blur]

12. This is the Daily Mail

they're still waiting for Diana to be raised from the dead and shine her saintly light on the world so that their lives can return to normal.

That apart, smacking is what you might think of as spanking. I was never spanked as a child at home or school and we've never spanked any of ours. Nor are schools allowed to use any corporal punishment. But a light spank or smack is not the end of the world, after all.