ABSTRACT
In any discussion of child upbringing, the question of discipline must be at once the central and the most controversial issue. Strict training in unquestioning obedience to an autocratic mother and father is no longer a normal or acceptable way of bringing up children in the climate of opinion which prevails in the English-speaking world today. The principle of reciprocity and its role in mothers' dealings with their children can be usefully pursued a little further by bringing together the two questions considered: How do mothers feel about smacking? Do they think it's necessary to smack children? This chapter concentrates on mothers' use or threat of physical force in their efforts to secure 'good' behaviour from their children. There are other means than smacking by which parents attempt to control and to guide their children: some of them clearly punishing, such as deprivation of sweets or privileges, others more subtle attempts to persuade or compel the child by verbal means.
