Scotland has become the first country in the UK to make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their children. The bill, introduced by the Scottish Green party MSP John Finnie, and supported by the SNP government, was backed by 84 votes to 29. In England and Northern Ireland, parents are allowed to use “reasonable chastisement”, but a ban on smacking is currently working its way through the Welsh Assembly.

Subversive post for the day!:

How times have changed!  My sister and I were playing on top of a barrage balloon on my grandfather’s farm in the Second World War, when the air-raid siren went off as German bombers approached in the distance.  For safety reasons we had been absolutely forbidden to climb the enticing steps to the top of the balloon, which promptly shot upwards into the sky. I was given six of the best with a cane by my father, who was on leave at the time.  Far from protesting, I remember apologizing.  I knew I had been naughty and that we both could have fallen to our deaths. I suffered absolutely no harm and never did it again.

So, how do modern parents discipline their children these days?  Or do they discipline their children?  One wonders.  Kids need boundaries and mostly do not resent the parents imposing them.  On the contrary, they ought to learn right and wrong from their parents, safe from dangerous – it’s part of what parenting involves,  tedious though it is.