Is Smacking a Proactive or Reactive?

Is Smacking a proactive or reactive?

I can hear some people saying it’s reactive and others saying it just might be proactive. Well guess what you are all right. It can be proactive as well as reactive. Remember I said smacking not beating. So smacking can be proactive. Your children know if I do this mummy or daddy will give me two stokes on my palm or on my bum. It can also be reactive when you just pounce on them without any prior warning. From people’s experience when smacking is not planned it can very quickly turn into aggressive beating. This is because there is a tendency for what they have done to be exaggerated in your mind at the point of punishment since you are emotionally charged. This is the reason some children are severely bruised by their parents as punishment for their misbehaviour.