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The real victims of the Anti-Smacking law cont...
This country's good and responsible mothers and grandmothers who care for their children are the victims of this bad law. A responsible mother or grandmother will correct her misbehaving child because she cares and loves her child and because she ;is responsible for the welfare of her child. She doesn't want her petulant, impulsive, disobedient child growing up to be a self-centered, disrespectful, violent, uncontrollable young adult.
Good parents who have authority over their children and who seek to effectively enforce their authority are the victims of this bad law.
Why?
Sue Bradford and her associates in Parliament, who have no authority over your children, have made it a criminal offence for you to effectively enforce your authority. The Government’s message is clear: any reasonable force used by the parent in the correction of their child is an assault, a criminal offence. Not content at having imposed their philosophy of parenting on you by making yours unlawful, the Government and the bureaucrats who serve it, have intensified their programme of conditioning the minds of New Zealanders. By running a nation-wide media campaign (at your expense) they hope to "educate" the public. It wants the public to believe that a smack as part of good parental correction and violent assault are one in the same thing. It wants the public to respond dutifully by reporting "incidences of violence" on children. It is working!
More-often-then-not it is mothers who are in public with their children that are bearing the brunt of this culture of reporting. A responsible mother who uses reasonable force to correct the behavior of her child, when the situation demands it, is now viewed as a suspected child abuser. She is reported.
In addition to the Government informers at schools and hospitals, we now have a meddling minority of brain-washed busy-bodies, emboldened by this nation-wide media campaign, reporting incidences of parents effectively enforcing their authority in dealing with a misbehaving child.
And she is visited. A knock on the door, and another responsible and caring mother is traumatized by a police visit. A prosecution may not follow, but a sense of persecution certainly does when CYFS workers visit the already traumatized mother. This mother who has come under the scrutiny of two powerful government agencies feels harassed, intimidated, is fearful and feels that her home has been violated. This traumatized mother and her bewildered children who witnessed this scrutiny are the real victims of this extremely intrusive bad law.
This bad law lumps together the actions of responsible, caring parents with the actions of delinquent parents and violent child abusers. Good parents will correct their child when the situation demands it, in public, in the light of day. They have nothing to hide. But the abusive lawless adults who know their deeds are evil, abuse their children in the dark, behind closed doors, sadly away from detection and scrutiny. This bad law fails to discriminate between actions that are good and actions that are evil. A smack, as part of good parental correction and a violent assault are not the same.
This bad law and the ensuing culture of informing has turned neighbour against neighbour, child against parent, and the police against the community it should be protecting. It has not stopped child abuse.
To effect change requires that calm and deliberate steps be made. The first step for New Zealanders is to petition for a citizens initiated referendum so they can have their say at the 2008 election. To achieve this requires 300,000 signatures.
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