Dear Platypus,

Thanks for explaining. I now get it.
I don't mind which one you use.
They're all fine - your choice.

@Lexi
I respect your views on how you wish to bring up your children.
I hear them.
And thanks for hearing me out and not threatening to report me or my children when they spank or cane their children in love.
Over dinner I checked with my eldest daughter and to my surprise, both she and and husband said they will use the cane if need be.

anyway have a blessed weekend or whatever minutes we got left

Platypus1900 when a 60 year old faces a wild eyed 24 year old with a carving knife, I believe a cricket bat is rather poor armament, when wielded hard enough, it just might break. A lump of water pipe would be better.

For those who reckon corporal punishment doesn't work, a rather horrible little story.

I was waiting in the park beside the barge ramp for the car ferry one day, on Russell Island, a Moreton Bay island. A family of 5 were also waiting in the park. Mum dad & 3 kids. One was small enough to be carried from their car in a bassinet, but I did not see how young.

The kid in the bassinet was yowling, & did so for some minutes. It was shouted at a couple of times, without any effect.

The woman then picked up a lump of tree branch, about 50mm diameter & a meter long. She raised this up over the bassinet as if threatening to hit the child/baby with it. There was immediate silence.

My immediate thought was thank god I'm not hers, & my second thought, could a mother ever hit a baby/very small child with such an implement. The fact that the threat brought the immediate desired effect tended to suggest this one did.

They did not appear to be dead beets, they were nicely dressed, & drove a nice car.

I suppose there could be another answer to the effect, but I was so shocked I have remembered it from over 30 years ago.

Still I wonder how big a stick should be applied to young thugs, who glass people on Saturday nights, in so called clubs, throughout our once fair country

@bec

perhaps we should spank them like naughty children?
it is funny but my grown up children will never call people names like many of the members heredo

perhaps these people has not been disciplined since young and hence the idea of other people's kids being disciplined threatened their freedom?

i must single Lexi out to be a fine example of a good debater
always courteous and civil

Dear platypus900,

Lexi is indeed a saint on OLO, far more measured than most of the rest of us and hardly ever given to strong words of rebuke.

So please understand when she said “Their discipline is never bizarre and their corrections never sadistic. Caning is sadistic,
Hitting a 2 year old? - awful!” that this was indeed one of the strongest condemnations I have see her make on this forum.

Awful, bizarre, sadistic. All coming from someone you appear to respect.

Get it through your thick skull mate you are out of order. Take up your collection of canes, god forbid they are still hanging on your wall, and burn them. You can not undo what you have done but do not propagate this behaviour through your children thus exposing your grandchildren to the same. This is Australia in the 21st Century and we are a Western nation with Western values and if that is such a problem for you then please consider moving.

I think the clearest positive example for slapping an unruly child would be that it more than likely will not turn into a Labor voter & therefore become a well adjusted adult.
There you have it :-)