I am a loving parent to a very beautiful 10 month old daughter. My partner and I adore her so much. I am very protective over her and am cautious of the way people treat her.

My partner and I have been discussing what our views on smacking is. This is because one of my nephew's is over disciplined and the other under and they can be very challenging. By over disciplined his mum is a single mum and will smack him (sometimes leaving a handprint) and is always arguing with him (he is almost 4 and very independent 😊). The under disciplined is again single mum who doesn't want to be the mean parent and gives in to the constant whining and often ignores him.

After hanging out with them my partner always says that they need a good smack and that our daughter won't be like them because she will get smacked if she plays up.

I told him straight I strongly disagree and that she will not be smacked. My reasons being that she will assume violence is acceptable to solve problems and she can hit to solve her disputes. I also mention that it is my partners role to guide our daughter to what is acceptable behavior from men in her life. If it's acceptable for her father to hit her when he disagrees with her behavior then so will boyfriends ect later on. There are plenty of other good points to while smacking is not the answer.

His argument is "but it works". He was smacked and he had belt used on him. He was also a huge nuisance for his parents even with smacking .

Like I told him smacking is only a quick fix and causes heaps of problems for the future.

An extra note is we live in New Zealand where it is illegal to hit children. I don't know what the laws are in other countries.