Yea, fair play. And while I think it’s reasonable for them to not have been raised getting slapped, I think part of the education is surely that one of the reasons you can’t do things like this to others, is that one of them WILL end up giving you a slap! It’s definitely a risk you face if you go around hurling abuse at grown men on the street. I think all of us know that. We don’t do things like that partly because we know better, but also partly because we all know that you run the risk of instant consequences.
And apologies if I caused offence earlier.
Its a very difficult subject to be fair. I was walking home a couple of years ago after being out with mates and two 12(ish) year olds walked past and as they did one of the pretended to swing for me, I turned and looked at them and both of them were saying ‘what? I’ll knock you out’. I was shocked, obviously I remember being a kid and we would give a bit of lip but if a grown man turned towards us we’d have legged it. A big part of me felt a slap would’ve benefited these kids, I just don’t have the authority to deliver it. It’s not my right.
It’s difficult because I’m a big believer in raising self-awareness and giving responsibility to my children being better for their own personal development than the carrot and stick approach. However is there proof that this overall approach develops respect and awareness of consequence, especially if delivered poorly. Going further I’d suggest that actually most parents probably aren’t following this model anyway and as such a lot of children are simply being raised with less discipline than in the past and not a lot else.
Therefore when they are out with friends the pleasure of being the big man, apparently even at 12, outweighs the potential pain of being embarrassed or even enduring physical suffering since they have no experience to fall upon of the latter. They simply abuse people and are rewarded by their peers.