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All the letters to the editor in the paper atm are going on about this stupid referendum we just had. The question was:
Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?
There are so many problems with this question I can't even name them all. You could word like this, too: Should children have the same legal rights against assault as adults in New Zealand? Same question, completely different subtext. Seriously, National, it's not that hard to come up with an unbiased wording on this. Because as it was, the question might as well be "Should good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?" (Though from what I've seen of some children there are those who think it already is.)
Apparently of the 54% of voters who actually bothered (not, for the record, the Prime Minister or the Opposition leader, who both thought the question was confusing and misleading), about 88% voted no. Apparently 1.6 million people don't think good parental correction should be a crime. What a shock. I bet the result would have been different if they were asked if children should have full legal rights against assault.
More than that broohaha though I'm just wondering if light smacks being illegal would actually stop anyone. If someone is completely stressed out and the baby keeps crying and etcetc, and their inclination is to pick the baby up and shake it and yell "JUST STOP CRYING!" or whatever, are they really going to go, "By golly, wait a minute! Light smacks as part of good parental correction are illegal! Well, shitbears, I'd better go do some yoga instead!" Ditto those parents who justify to themselves that excessive force (the kind that leads to hospital visits and broken bones, etc) is better than negligence.
Personally, we were smacked growing up. My parents didn't think grounding was a good punishment, but smacking was okay, and honestly just the threat of it could be a good deterrent. Now it's not like I can say "my parents smacked me and I turned out fine" because... well, look at me, I'm truly fucked up, but I can say with basically 100% certainty that none of my problems were caused by a smacked bottom as a child.
The referendum cost NZ$9 million dollars and people are, quite rightly, wondering why that money couldn't have been spent on campaigns and community outreach to help prevent child abuse instead.
Of course I remember a recent news story about a horrible, cruel, negligent parent who apparently let their ten year old go to the park without an adult. MY GOD, right? WE CAN'T LET KIDS PLAY IN THE PARK BY THEMSELVES. Just like we've phased out bark chips on the ground and replaced it all with rubber mats and taken out all the fun playground structures and replaced them with kit sets.
I feel like all new parents should be forced to watch things like this, just to knock some sense into them. We've gone hundreds of thousands of years without wrapping kids in cotton wool. There's no reason to start now.
eta: incidentally if you're wondering I didn't vote. haaaa I suck at my civic duty.
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