Granada London are currently in the process of making a one hour documentary for ITV1 looking at parenting and child discipline.

The issue of whether or not parents should be allowed to smack their children has been the subject of widespread debate over the past 18 months. Already in 2006 there have been fresh calls for an outright ban.

The anti-smacking lobby has been very successful in making a case in the media about why they believe smacking is wrong. However, we seldom hear from people who believe that smacking (as part of a wider programme of child discipline) can have a positive effect.

We would like to hear from parents for whom smacking works to learn how it can work and why.

We are currently in the early stages of production and we are simply looking to talk to people who might be interested in taking part. At this stage, nobody we speak to will be obliged to go any further than an initial chat.

Please call us on 020 7522 4578 or email me at matthew.calais[@]granadamedia.com

i do not agree that you should smack all the time, but I admit that i use this form of discipline, but rarely. It does work when they are young and cannot understand words but are learning cause and effect. when my oldest was 9 months old I began telling him no. One time no matter what I did; tell him no, try to distract him, move him to another room, etc. he kept going back to the same thing I told him not to touch. I smacked his hand and he kept touching it until it hurt enough that he stopped and I never had a problem with him touching things that he wasn't supposed to again. He listened to the no. I know that some countries have banned smacking and the child abuse rate went up. If it's your only discipline I don't agree. It is my last resort when it comes to my children.