Smacking children is “not the end of the world” and is “OK” in circumstances where it’s mild and linked with rewarding good behaviour, a leading psychiatrist says.
The age-old debate on the controversial discipline has resurfaced after former NRL bad boy John Hopoate defended his practice of smacking his 11 children, including his three-year-old daughter, when they misbehaved.
Hopoate said he operated by “old-school disciplining”, smacking his kids from “day dot”.
“The older ones I bash on the shoulder or on the arm or leg, they’ve got to feel it,” he said.
Psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed said people made “too much” of the spanking debate.
“The psychological research does say if spanking is your key parenting strategy then it doesn’t work,” he told 2GB on Tuesday.
Dr Ahmed said discipline by smacking wasn’t an issue if it did not go into the realm of abuse and the action was “fairly consistent and proportionate” and parents were “linking it with the rewarding behaviour” they wanted to see from their children.
He said boundaries needed to be set when children were aged between four and six.
“The core point is some smacking when it’s consistent, relatively mild and linked with the behaviour … is OK,” he said.
“It’s not the end of the world.”
Hopoate also bemoaned how some of his friends’ children were taking out apprehended violence orders (AVO) against their parents because kids “just want, want, want and when you can’t give it to them anymore, they can’t handle it and become violent and aggressive”.
Data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveals 12,022 people aged under 18 are protected by an AVO.
Parenting expert Justin Coulson told 2GB Radio that many of these cases involved “significant concern” in the family home.
“Usually, it’s an adult who’s out of control and they’re going hard on the child,” he said.
“The reality is the very vast majority of them are not adults intervening for a child’s protection.
“What we’re usually going to see in this data is these AVOs aren’t for a parent who is a little bit overtired, stressed out and a bit over the kids who has just lost the plot one afternoon and given (them) a whack.”
