I HAVE absolutely no problems, hang ups or qualms about smacking my children. I have two sons and a daughter - now teenagers - and I smacked them all. It just wasn't an issue.

I didn't beat them. I smacked them lightly on the hand from about the age of two to seven, before they'd reached the age of reason. If they did something they shouldn't have been doing I would say "no"; but, after a few "nos", I would smack them. It seemed to work and they'd usually stop whatever they were doing.

I also used to thump the kitchen table with a wooden spoon, which helped me get rid of my own frustration. The number of wooden spoons I broke on the table has since become a family joke. As the kids got older they would laugh at me hitting the table and my face getting redder; however, it made me feel better and got rid of my aggression.

It may be sexist but I found my two boys more difficult to discipline than my daughter. They were tearing lunatics with cars, bikes and trikes and much more physical than my daughter. When I smacked my daughter she would get upset and offended, but the boys didn't care.

Always, after I gave them a smack, I'd keep my distance and withdraw some affection for a couple of hours until they'd apologise. I kept it consistent.

My husband kept out of all rows and he would be the last resort if all else failed. He never went looking for trouble or confrontation. I would deal with the day to day items and rarely refer the children to him. If, by six in the evening, things were not settling down, he'd sit down with them and talk to them. And he would, sometimes, give the boys a little thump - more than I would.

After the children reached the age of reason, we would just talk to them and reason things out or, more likely, shout and roar at each other. I honestly don't know if smacking worked, but I don't think it caused any problems for my children.

TO SMACK or not to smack that is the question. The case being taken to the European Court of Human Rights has provoked considerable debate about whether parents should slap their children.

The thinking in homes around the country - from a small, unscientific E&L sample - seems to be in favour of the occasional smack as a means of correction or discipline.

A Dublin solicitor, who specialises in family law, says the case "gets into an area that is hugely sensitive", raising questions about the extent to which there can be third party intervention in the family.

"I think most Irish people feel offended at the notion of state intervention, that they can't slap their own children. It seems the whole relationship between parents and their children is considered natural and unregulated."

Marie Murray, principal clinical psychologist at St Vincent's Psychiatric Hospital in Dublin, who deals largely with young people, believes that slapping is not "useful". She understands, she says, the protective instinct of the parent who reaches out to slap a small child who is reaching up for a pan or putting a hand to a plug - with the hope of creating an association in the child's mind between an unpleasant experience and a dangerous act.

"The problem is, if slapping is a way of disciplining and teaching, then who decides when and in what instance? If we begin to advocate slapping as a response in one instance, it might become the solution in all instances," she says.

"If smacking is used as retaliation for a child hitting someone else, that's just repeating the process."

However, many parents stand by the practice. Veronica Hogan from Cahir, Co Tipperary, no longer slaps her 16 year old son; however her 10 year old is still small enough to get the odd slap. "I wouldn't allow anybody else to do it and I'm not talking about thumping him now. I'd tell them to stop doing something. If they keep at it, after two or three warnings, then I'd slap them."

A father of two, vice principal of a secondary school in Munster, says: "I wouldn't approve of it in school but at home I'd give them a clip on the ear." Parents today are not prepared to take responsibility for their children's actions, he says.

Kathleen King of Ardmore, Co Waterford, a mother of five and a grandmother five times over, believes that "a child will try you to the last" and that "the little slap is much better than any mental punishment, like putting a child up to a room".

In her experience, children are "as good as gold after it". After a quick slap, she says, "a child will always come back and say `I love you, Mam, I'm sorry'."

Lorraine Barry, of Templeogue, Dublin, mother of a 10 year old boy and 17 year old girl, is convinced that a slap is a necessary and a good thing. "I don't think it does any harm at all.

"Sometimes children need a little reminder as to who is boss ... The gas thing is my kids aren't afraid of me at all."

FROM THE AGE of one to three, my daughter would surely have won the prize in any competition in which stubbornness was a factor. Prior to that, she simply concentrated on being a colicky baby who would scream herself to sleep every night.

As her colic wore off (yes, she was breast fed; yes, we read every parenting book in vogue until we consigned them to the local tiphead; yes, we rubbed her back and tried gripe water.. .) she put her energies into what seemed like a sophisticated campaign to drive her parents demented.

She didn't feel she should nap during the day, no matter how tired she was, so she would throw everything in her bedroom around until she collapsed in a heap on the floor. Putting her into the buggy or car seat required a super human effort as she objected to being strapped in. After all, buggies and car seats were for babies. She knew best.

Her attitude to the fridge was simple - it should be regularly emptied of its contents and all of the juices and milk emptied on the floor. When we put a child proof lock on the fridge door she watched with interest and then reached up her pudgy two year old arm and unclasped it in 10 seconds flat.

The video recorder fared no better. Its slot was obviously designed as a receptacle for squashed bananas, yoghurt, and toys. Taps were for turning on as were lights, plugs and switches (once again, natty safety devices simply added an extra spice to the operation). Demanding was a polite word for the amount of attention she needed.

Finally, her continuous activity and my continuous exhaustion prompted me to take the matter up with our doctor. Could she be hyperactive? No, he "reassured" me, just a normal tear away two year old.

I never smacked or hit her. Political correctness had nothing to do with it. The simple reason was that I could not trust myself to stop. I had visions of breaking her arm or throwing her out the window - so, instead, I practised my most "patient" voice (while I inwardly seethed) and tried to talk her and me through the truly terrible twos (which lasted almost three years).

I'm not sure if smacking would have resolved the situation but, in any event, we're over that stage and we can now discuss things rationally. Her current raids on the fridge are in the interests of foraging for food, while her dealings with the video are purely technical.