POPE Francis shocked many during a weekly general audience which was devoted to the role of fathers in the family. The head of the Catholic Church said it’s OK to spank your children as a form of discipline as long as their dignity is maintained.

Francis also outlined the traits of a good father as including one who forgives but is able to “correct with firmness” while not discouraging the child.

“One time, I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say, ‘I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them,'” Francis said. “He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.”

The Catholic Church’s position on corporal punishment came under sharp criticism last year during a grilling by members of a UN human rights committee monitoring implementation of the UN treaty on the rights of the child.

France was recently fingered as being in violation of a European treaty because it did not fully ban the smacking of children. The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe said France’s laws on corporal punishment for children were not “sufficiently clear, binding and precise”.

France bans violence against children but does allow parents the “right to discipline” them. French law does forbid corporal punishment in schools or disciplinary establishments for children.

Locally, alternative forms of punishment are being more widely used in recent years, eg confiscating your child’s favourite toy or book or simply cancelling outings, to firmly send the message of disapproval of his or her poor behaviour. Additionally, not yielding to emotionally manipulative tantrums is another non-corporal approach to disciplining your child.

Recently, a curious method was employed by a US barber who gave parents the option of disciplining their children by offering free “old-man” haircuts coined “Benjamin Button”. The haircut resembles a balding senior citizen. The barber, Russell Fredrick, used his own misbehaving son as the control subject. “Parents are at a loss,” he said. “When you go to discipline kids these days, [we] can’t necessarily use physical punishment the way parents did in the past, but [we] have to do something.”

Baby Steps polled a few moms and dads to get their opinions and approach toward punishing their young children. The dads were quicker to spare the rod. One dad referenced childhood “whippings” as the impetus for his patience, while another cited being the secondary disciplinarian as the major factor. Understandable, but could it also be that the masculine form and tone creates a more imposing presence which drums up a bit of fear commanding the child’s obiedience? Mommies are usually viewed as the “pushovers”, right? Parents should refrain from punishing their children when upset because anger begets irrational action. Here are the views of parents regarding their chosen methods of punishment:

– AP with additional reporting by Gorgette Beckford