Go ahead and smack me

A new corporal punishment debate is started by news (no-doubt jumbled) that one woman has been chatted to by police about smacking her kid with a wooden spoon.

It just seems to me that a wooden spoon is a quite nasty weapon, particularly because it is conveniently to hand. And also because I know that I am one of those people who can too easily go from a tap-to a slap-to a thump.

I determined early on in my time as a parent that I needed to discipline myself to not strike my children. I did not always manage this, and it always said more about my behaviour than theirs.