A boy is rude to his parents and gets a clip round the ear. A girl has a meltdown in the cereal aisle, then hides so that her mother flies into a panic and gives her a smack on the bottom when she eventually turns up. Did punishments like these ever actually do anybody any harm?
“When people say, ‘But a clip round the ear never hurt me,’ well, actually it does hurt you,” says Emma Citron, a consultant clinical psychologist who works with children, young people and adults. “You may deny that. You may say, ‘I knew my parents loved me.’ Fine, but they still shouldn’t have been clipping you around the ear. That was still a moment of poor parenting.”
What are the effects of slapping a child in the face?
Although disciplining children can sometimes seem a bit overwhelming, Many people already agree that smacking isn’t a good form of discipline.
It can be difficult to manage children with the constant outbursts, temper tantrums and all the screaming, yelling and fighting back.
It’s no wonder children can be hazardous to others and importantly to themselves.
Here Are The Top 5 Effects Of Slapping A Child In The Face
- It Demonstrates To Your Child That Hitting Is OK To do.
- You Risk Serious Long term Injury
- Long Term Health And Development Issues
- It Doesn’t Necessarily Curb Disruptive Behaviour
- In Some Countries, You Can Face Jail Time For Child Abuse
Developmental Growth
As your child goes through each developmental stage they learn new information about themselves and the world at an alarming rate.
Sometimes this can all get overwhelming and tensions can arise when they aren’t able to express themselves effectively.
With the popular rise of aggression, violence and general disruptive behaviour in children’s cartoons, it’s not surprising children are acting out.
Your child’s learning environment can have a very disruptive influence on their behaviour and make your job much harder.
Defintion of Smacking
Smacking is usually defined as:“The use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for the purpose of correcting or controlling the child’s behaviour”.
Many parents are left with little to no choice and punishments can get more severe as the child gets older or the parent gets more stressed.
The scary part is research shows that many physical punishments may have longer-lasting effects on children and some, like the effects of slapping a child in the face, can be irreversible.
Parents have a false belief that if you hit or spank your child often but then show them love and affection the positive attention outweighs the negative punishment but this is not true.
It’s important to understand that more exposure to harsher punishment has been linked to higher levels of anxiety in children.
Also, children tend to lash out at siblings in reaction to what they have witnessed or experienced themselves.
A child who is punished tends to feel an element of guilt or shame during the incident.
Although, this can be harmless at home or when children are punished in smaller doses this does not apply to all forms of discipline.
Slapping a child in the face can cause permanent damage to their self-esteem, especially if the action is seen by other family or friends.
