Muslim Lifestyle

Diary of a Desperate Dad

Issue 17 February 2006

A Compendium of Discipline Part Two
Spanking. This is the most common and yet also the most controversial form of discipline. Some say: ‘spare the rod, spoil the child.’ Others say spanking sends the wrong message and teaches violence to others. Certainly there is no mention of the Prophet himself ever hitting a child. There are lobby groups for making spanking illegal and lobby groups for bringing it back within schools. There is even, or so I heard, a group called ‘Spank with Love’! But spanking also provides some poignant moments, as when a parent is shouting to a child: ‘Still Crying?’ Whack! ‘I’m going to carry on spanking until you STOP CRYING!’ Never made sense of that. Or when you hear a parent smacking with the words: ‘DON’T’, SMACK, SMACK, ‘YOUR’, SMACK, ‘SISTER’!"