[Margaret Pilkington]

As Westendlass has said, it is easy to see every single day, parents who while they may not be slapping their child, are violent towards them.
When in the post office recently I saw a mother with three small children......all of the under school age, put her face no more than a couple of inches away from her toddler sons face and then proceed to verbally abuse him.....with a long line of vile expletives.
Is this violence? Is this likely to cause the child lasting harm?
My answer would be that this is much more harmful than a slap on the legs.

Since parenting became a softly, softly thing.....do you think society has improved?
My parents were strict.....we knew exactly where the boundaries were.....and knew what would happen if we crossed these boundaries.
My mother once dragged me to the police station for taking sixpence out of her purse.
She asked for me to be put into a cell for half an hour(I was let out after a very long ten minutes)......was she wrong to do that?
Do you think I learned my lesson......of course I did. It stays in my memory....but I am not damaged by it because I know that I brought it on myself.