Were your parents ’criminals’?

I just had a heated discussion with a couple of the ladies I work with (both have children my age).  They are pro-smacking and think that half the trouble with youths today is that they weren't smacked   I was arguing the point saying that smacking is not an effective form of discipline and that there are other ways to discipline a child which they both disagreed with.  I went on to say that children are so little and yet people think it's ok to smack them and yet if you smacked an adult it would be called assault to which one answered "yes but that's just pc bullocks too"

I think banging my head against a brick wall would be a more useful and enjoyable way of spending my morning tea break.

The comments page on the website you posted is cracking me up. 

Such as "That's absolutely outstanding and contains nothing controversial in any way. However I'm a bit confused. I couldn't find a single reference to wife beating, and we all know the benefits of that....
R, Nottingham"

Some people are taking it all very seriously and others are totally taking the piss too.

Jennz wrote: I think there seems to be this big lack of responsibility going on when it comes to raising our children. The whole 'it takes a village' idea isn't how we raise our children anymore- everyone seems so quick to blame everyone else. Parents blame the schools, who blame the social workers, who blame lack of government funding etc etc. Its about time people stepped up and started getting their villages back (says she who is completely isolated on the other side of the world ).

I totally agree!  Many parents are too busy nowadays to care for their kids and that saddens me so much.  It's great when grandparents or other family members step in and share the load but sadly it seems nowadays more and more families are doing it alone and choosing earning money to spend on things we don't need as more important than working less hours and spending time with our children.  It was highlighted this week in the news article about parents who are dropping their primary school aged kids off to school up to an hour before the gates even open so they can get to work.  Imagine the kind of trouble kids can get into in an unsupervised hour (the ones in the article were playing chicken with cars on the motorway) and lets not forget there are unsavoury adults out there that will see unsupervised children as an opportunity (like the guy that posed as a truency officer).