Hmm, a kid misbehaves. The father disciplines him in a manner which causes short term pain but will likely ensure the child does not repeat the undesired behavior.

Sounds like good parenting to me.

I worked for the school system for years and as such was a mandatory reporter. If I had even the slightest suspicion that a child was being abused I was required by law to report it and that's the way I continue to conduct myself. Here's the thing, unless a report of suspected child abuse is incredibly clear cut nothing happens the first time except that a file gets opened. It generally takes several people reporting suspected abuse for child services to act. Reporting in these circumstances does nothing unless this dad has been reported before in which case he has shown a pattern of abuse and needs to be dealt with.

A grown man shoving a 6 year old kid into a wall is "good parenting"? Let me guess, your dad smacked you around and it was good for you (except for that part where you think it's okay to shove a little kid into a wall.)

A well-considered spank might be useful as a deterrent, maybe, although I as a child and now my kids have got along just fine without it. Overall though there are more effective ways to punish other than intimidation and force, dontcha think?

Next time you get a little too loud at a party or disagree with your boss about something a little corporal punishment would be in order.

Let's first define this "shove." I find it hard to believe this father gave his son a two-handed push into the wall. I tend to think he probably had one hand on the kid an forced him back against the wall. This ensures the childs attention, stops him from running away and justly scares him. Fear and pain (short term, minimal) is an important learning mechanism as it provides consequences for poor actions and decision where there otherwise may be none.

While you may not use fear and or pain (spanking, etc) as a tool with your child/children....and it works, it likely doesn't work with every child. Have you seen the actions and plain ignorance of some kids today? It's likely the result of poor parenting. I can't help but think, when I see kids like that...."man, he probably could've used a good smack now and then growing up." But hey, to each their own.

On your final point, corporal punishment isn't really a great deterent for adults in our society. You'd probablly be better off imposing some kind of monetary penalty. This, of course, wouldnt work with children seeing as they have no money.

Check out Time magazine for whether spanking "works," AreU. The only thing it works on is producing aggressive children.

I think that if my friend had told me the child hit his head, I'd have said, gently but pointedly and knowingly, "I saw. Now what should we do about it?"

As for AreU's point about kids not having money so monetary penalties not working, children have things that they value, and those can be used as penalties. Hitting a child only shows them that violence is the solution to use when someone smaller than you does something you disagree with. It also shows that mommy or daddy isn't too inventive in thinking up logical consequences for poor behavior.