Ezzo and others who support physical punishment of children always talk about 'smacking'. Words are used to soften blows. Research which asked children how they would define a smack found that the majority described it as a 'hard hit'. Calling hitting 'smacking' absolves adults of some responsibility. But hitting it is.
Polls routinely find that the majority of parents think it is acceptable to smack their children.
Ezzo bandied such a poll at his meeting yesterday. But a different result might emerge if the words 'hit' or 'beat' were used instead. No one talks about husbands 'smacking' their wives any more. They are called wife-beaters, and rightly so. Yet arguments about the sanctity and privacy of the home are used to protect the right of parents to hit, in just the same way they were used to protect to rights of husbands to hit and rape their wives.