I agree that there is a difference between smacking and hitting, but am grateful to have never relied on either to get my point across.

A situation hasn't got so out of control that me raising my hand has been the only course of action to take. But that is just my experience.

I would not try and discourage smackers from smacking, so long as they limit their hands to their own kids. But I certainly would not let a teacher or any other authority figure lay a finger on mine.

Personally I wouldn't want that on my conscience. I feel that as a 'reasonable rational adult', I should be able to defuse an argument without bullying, and that is how I see it, big person hurting little person is bullying.

Now saying all that, I do have sympathy for the mum who has just watched her child dash out onto a road without looking, and narrowly missed being hit by a bus, that is the situation where I am most likely to see smacking in the street, and it always seems borne out of shock and fright on the parents part. Touchwood that is one incident we have avoided so far.

I watched a girl from my daughter's class being heavily chastised once on a school outing, by her mother, she was dragged across a grassy area and given a heavy wallop when the mother thought she was out of sight. She was five years old and her crime...wanting to take her shoes off and paddle in a kids pool, that was full of children from her class doing exactly that. It came as no surprise when we later found out that the little girl in question was bullying other children in her playground,to the extent that the head teacher had to call her mother in for " a chat". Children learn by imitation.