Smacking children

The NZ Herald reports that a petition to repeal NZ's so-called "anti-smacking laws" failed to collect (by a small amount) the necessary number of signatures to force a referendum on the issue.

I am gob-smacked that at least over quarter of a million New Zealanders would sign a petition to assert the right of parents to hit their children. I am even more bowled over by the fact that some mean spirited Dickensian group has gone to the extraordinary effort to collect such a vast number of signatures so that mums and dads across the land can hit their children with impunity.

I could understand going to great effort to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures for petitions that would genuinely improve the welfare of children, such as petitions aimed at getting:
- the government to put pressure on the UN to step up in Darfur.
- funding for Plunket
- more funding for equipment in children's hospitals
- more action towards ending child poverty, here and abroad
- improved public facilities for families
- more help for special needs children

But a petition aimed at the so-called right of a parent to hit a child? What have we come to?

Children have rights. They are not sub-human. If it is not OK for my neighbour to give me a smack on the bum because my dinner guests from last night were a bit rowdy, then it is certainly not OK for me to smack my child for whatever reason. Find another way to channel your anger, away from the children, and find another way to discipline them. Good parents don't resort to abuse.