Is occasional hitting still abuse?

Yes.

A smack to the bottom to snap them out of bad behavior. Otherwise all else is abuse!

I say hit the child regardless of how your day went or how you feel. The kid will end up successful like Micheal Jackson. he became a world icon

if there is any striking backed by foul moods, then yes. if its like a playful “tap” it could be ok or at most, considered a grey area.

What you described is abuse if it happens one time. If it happens multilple times, it becomes a pattern of abuse.

There’s no freebies here.

There is a line between discipline and abuse. If your kid is acting up/disrespecting you/disrespecting other elders/etc, I see no qualms about giving them a slap upside the head. That doesn’t mean straight up bury the kid, it means give them a little “love tap” to let them know who’s calling the shots.

Anything else is using your child as a punching bag. If you’re doing that, YOU need to be target practice for muskets and harpoon guns.

Child abuse is not cool, ever, but kids these days most certainly need to be disciplined. The media is leading them to believe that its okay to talk down to your parents, as well as do other pretty bad things (drink, smoke, sex, crime) and too many parents aren’t realizing that this is not the proper way for a young kid, or anyone else, to act.

Hitting a child just for the hell of it is abuse.
Hitting a child no matter how hard cause you love them is NOT abuse.

@MrGeneVan: ”Hitting a child no matter how hard cause you love them is NOT abuse.”

Is that from the Ike Turner Guide to Parenting?

oy vey
::face palm::

Hitting a child unless it is spanking is always abuse. Period.

I’m with Dude from Pdx—all hitting is abuse, period.

In my opinion, any physical punishment is detrimental. It teaches only that powerful people can hit less powerful people. Later, the child identifies with the aggressor, and tends to hit. I have raised four children, two to majority, without a single instance of corporal punishment.

@pdworkin and how are your kids? curious because I am as against any form of hitting or spanking or corporal punishment in anyway as you can get. So my answer is yes any hitting is abuse, even spanking and should be illegal, and you wont hear me say something should be illegal very often because in general i hate rules.

@Codexnecro: “I see no qualms about giving them a slap upside the head.”

One should never strike a child. Any kind of slap seems brutal to me.