Child Abuse

[mcgillianaire]

A man in Manchester was arrested last night and given an official police caution for slapping his 13-year-old daughter (the first time he had ever physically hit her). He hit her after she banged a neighbour's window. Immediately afterwards the daughter called the police. The father has quit his football coaching and community work because the caution could prevent him working with vulnerable children. The daughter has since apologised for getting her father in trouble and agreed she deserved the slap...

[Poll #1241699]

Comments

[brinker.livejournal.com]

but unless proven otherwise I don't think you can disagree so easily with the claim.

It's true that none of us, or any judge, is going to be able to definitively determine whether it's the first time or not. I think it's pretty safe to assume that the entire family is all going to insist that he never did it before, though, given what's at stake.

The window banging was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I imagine you're right that it was a "last straw" type thing. But still, people parent in a certain manner. If they never hit their kids... it's unlikely that they ever will. If they do occasionally/rarely (which is what I expect he does) then they're more likely to.

>I think there are certainly times when parents have a right to hit kids.
I'd be curious to read when they do have the right...

I suppose I should clarify what I mean by hitting. I don't have a problem with an occasional spanking... spankings being defined as open handed, not on the face or any part of the body that can be easily injured, not hard enough to cause undue/lingering pain, etc., etc., etc. As for what kind of circumstances? Hard to list off a string of them. I got a spanking for throwing our cats in the pool to have swimming races. I think that's fair. I'd say certainly anything that harms/hurts someone.... such as throwing rocks at cars, kicking parents (or anyone), stuff like that....