When tough love crosses the line to child abuse
It’s time to rethink physical discipline that can take parents down a slippery slope. What’s more, it may not help the child learn.
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Parents may start out with good intentions when they start physically disciplining a child, but may end up abusing them, says the writer.
PHOTO: ST FILE
One sobering fact stood out among the multitude of statistics in the Domestic Violence Trends Report 2026: Many of the 1,917 new high-risk child abuse cases in 2025 involved the excessive use of physical force to discipline the child.
Inappropriate or excessive discipline was also cited as examples of the 2,476 new cases with low or moderate safety and risk concerns.