Scotland is restricting parents' right to smacking, and it has been outlawed in schools, yet three quarters of parents admit they smack their children. With the help of real-life family scenarios, this film weighs up the pros and cons of this controversial form of child-punishment.
[Photo caption] For many parents, smacking is a last resort when they need to discipline a child, but is it strictly necessary?
A Good Smack? 10.35pm BBC1
Have you ever smacked your child? Apparently three-quarters of parents admit that they smack their children, although for many it's done only when they can find no other way to impose their will.
As Scotland introduces a new law to prevent adults from smacking children under the age of three, this documentary puts cameras in the homes of three families where smacking happens daily. In two of the homes you can sympathise with the frustrated parents, even if you don't approve of their actions. Their exuberant kids would try the most saintly adult. Most interesting, though, are Alan and Elspeth Bright, a Christian couple with six children, who do not allow the cameras to show them smacking their children, but are adamant that smacking is not wrong "when it's done the right way", by which they mean in a caring family context.
After watching the footage, relentlessly optimistic child psychologist Karen Sullivan (a sort of highly qualified Mary Poppins with two sons of her own) advises the families on how they can achieve harmony without hitting.
Much of her advice we've heard before. Most children's behavioural problems seem to be controlled by praising the good, ignoring the bad and offering plenty of "gold star" incentive schemes. But it works. The only family who are not interested in trying her ideas are the Brights. "With six children in the house, to keep track of who's been grounded, who's not allowed on the Playstation today, who can't have sweets tomorrow... I think my head would pop," says Elspeth, who refuses to feel guilty about her chosen form of disciplining, arguing that she was smacked as a child and it didn't do her any harm.
