Parents should be allowed to smack their children without the fear of facing jail, a Labour MP has said.

Tottenham MP David Lammy told a Mumsnet webchat that politicians should spend less time telling parents what to do.

He said it was "too easy for middle class legislators to be far removed from the realities of the typical single mum".

Mild smacking is allowed but any which causes visible bruising, grazes, scratches, swellings or cuts is not.

Mr Lammy's constituency was the first to see violence and looting during last summer's riots.

'Not sovereign'

In a blog for Mumsnet ahead of a webchat on Tuesday, he said the parents of those involved needed support, not blame, from politicians.

He wrote: "Over the last few decades, Westminster has spent more time telling them what not to do as opposed to offering them practical support.

"The endless back and forth about smacking in the early 2000s exemplified this."

Asked to explain his comments about smacking by a Mumsnet user, Mr Lammy replied: "Parents in Tottenham continually raise with me the real pressures of raising children for example on the 15th floor of a tower block with knives, gangs and the dangers of violent crime just outside the window they say they no longer feel sovereign in their own homes and the ability to exercise their own judgement in relation to discipline and reasonable chastisement has been taken away from them.

"It's too easy for middle class legislators to be far removed from the realities of the typical single mum struggling with these issues and so in that context in the book [his book about the riots] I do say that we should return to the law as it existed for 150 years before it was changed in 2004."

The 2004 Children's Act removed the defence of "reasonable chastisement" for any punishment towards a child that leads to bruising, swelling, cuts, grazes or scratches. Any adult found guilty of breaking the law may face up to five years in jail.

Mild smacking which causes no more than temporary "reddening of the skin" is permitted, but critics have said the distinction between this and excessive force is unclear.

Mr Lammy was asked whether he meant England and Wales "should return to a time when it was still OK to smack a child in such a way that it left a mark".

He replied: "The legislation currently talks about 'a reddening of the skin' not completely sure how this applies to my own children!

"Previously the courts determined whether parents had used 'reasonable chastisement' or 'excessive force'. Unfortunately, some parents do abuse their children but we should be careful not to stigmatise the majority. There's a big difference between abuse and parenting."

The MP said in his blog he wanted social services to be "recast" as family services - "positive, universal and valued".

"In healthcare we each have a GP who acts as a gatekeeper to other specialists. The same ought to be true for the family.

"Parents could be directed towards relationship counselling and peer support. Where relationships break down, separating couples could be helped to sort out how best to care for their children."

In 2010, the Council of Europe said 20 European countries had introduced a complete ban on smacking and a further eight had committed to do so.

In October 2008, a cross-party group of MPs tried unsuccessfully to change the law to introduce such a ban.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16705247)

------------------------

Sorry for pasting such a large article - I read through it, and felt that it was all relevent to the topic.

Do you think that parents are afraid to discipline their children?

Could this lead to criminal behaviour; even to extreme examples such as what we saw in the Summer Riots?

If you have/plan to have children, how do you/would you discipline them? How were you disciplined as a child?

Of course, there is more to discuss on this topic than just those points - but that would be a good starting point :) Personally, I feel that parents are afraid to some extent of physically deterring their children from bad behaviour, and that smacking, in moderation, is a suitable method of punishment. However, I appreciate the difficulties that this would cause, since there would always be those that take it too far.

What do you think?

Bad (not to say some little shits don't kinda deserve it) but there are far better methods of punishing/disciplining a child.

Don't think violence works, just makes the person hitting feel better.

yes, kids needed to be beat into senses sometime.

Good, parents are way too soft on their kids these days. Kids need to be actually disciplined when they do something wrong.

And parents also need to take responsibility for thier kids. No more scapegoating video games and TV for their kid's bad behaviour. 

Edit: Of course I just mean a solid smack to the ass, not a punch or any actual violent shit. I was spanked a couple times when I was young for doing stupid shit, didn't turn me into a serial killer or bully. 

Any form of violence should be forbidden in every single case except for self-defense. That's basic.

of course we should allow these dumb lazy parents to beat their children to fix the problems they already caused with their ineptitude. clearly these wretches know how much they should be hitting their children because theyve shown such great skill already, so we should trust them.

Violence won't fix the mistakes you made when your children were small, like not being around or not being interested in them.

Like what though? I really don't think sending a kid to their room or taking away their Wii for a week is really that big of a deal. 

I know this is a thread for serious conversation but I'm not in a serious mood. I'll be leaving now--but before I do, see what happens when you don't teach a child who's the boss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9obAE2w26Y

Scary stuff, indeed.