ABSTRACT
Bad temper is regretted by mothers who succeed in controlling actual hitting out of temper, and to guilt and self-reproach in themselves. The mother who is faced with a screaming, colicky baby can neither talk her way politely through the situation nor abandon her part in it; she can only do her best to pacify the child, in an atmosphere of growing physical tension exacerbated by the frustrating knowledge that she is failing in her role of comforting mother. It is small wonder that, in their heart of hearts, many mothers know that the difference between themselves and the parent whose anger erupts into physical violence is only one of degree and of rather more effective controls. A few mothers distinguished between feeling sorry for their smacking out of emotion and out of reasonable doubt; they felt that what they did was right, but that the pathos of the child could easily beguile them into sentimental and unjustified regret.
