Swedish parents jailed for 'spanking' kids

Political Correctness is a tool of Marxism - and this article proves it. Now, before you misunderstand my point of view, I'm totally against physical abuse of children. However, when it come to discipline then I stand by the adage that a timely smack when required saves a lot of tears later - and I mean smack and not beat? I know lots of people who have judged parents who have smacked their kids (including an Education Psychologist) - until they had their own! Then, whatever was handy was used - as I have witnessed. In my case I have two sons (now teenagers) and they got their fair share of smacks when they were younger. I can't remember the last time I needed to give them a smack - maybe 5-6 years ago. Not all children require a smack to open their ears, but some certainly do - as did my 2 boys. I could speak till the cows came home and achieve nothing - especially if they ganged up - but if I got out the wooden spoon their ears would magically open and the canal between their ears and brain would work again. In any case, Sweden doesn't believe that parents have a right to raise their kids in a way they seem fit. No surprise people don't bother having kids anymore - between being branded a racist if you love your country; to being branded a child abuser if you discipline your kids - it's no wonder that you'd rather sit at home with the curtains drawn in case you offend anyone.

A Swedish court has jailed the parents of three children who were regularly beaten since the age of three in what they claimed was a method of discipline prescribed in the Bible.

The couple, from Karlstad in central Sweden, were imprisoned for nine months apiece, according to a Sveriges Television (SVT) report.

Corporal punishment, formally outlawed in Sweden in 1979, was a regular feature of three of the couple's four children's lives, the Värmland district court heard.

According to the court transcripts, the parents "explained that they had used, what they themselves described as spanking, physical punishment as part of their methods for raising the children."

The court heard that the couple had used a hairbrush, a wooden plank or a hand to punish their three eldest children, SVT reported.

The father explained that when the children did something wrong they were given a first warning and then a second and if they, for example, carried on cycling in the street without permission, they would then receive a physical punishment.

The court found that "despite the details of the case at hand" the parents "had a loving and caring relationship to their children", but that the systematic treatment metered out was in breach of the law and deserving of a custodial sentence.

The parents were furthermore order to pay damages of 25,000 kronor to each of the affected children.

The three children at the centre of the case, as well as a younger sibling, have been in care since the preliminary investigation was opened against their parents in the beginning of the summer.

Parents' rights to meter out physical punishment was revoked already in 1966 in Sweden, with a formal legal ban coming into into force in July 1979. Children in Sweden now enjoy the same legal protection from physical assault afforded to adults.

Source