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A lobby group opposing the law banning the smacking of children says a school reported a Wellington mother to Child, Youth and Family Services (CYF) for smacking her child on the hand.
And on another occasion, the same mother was visited by police after a neighbour reported a
smacking in the family's yard.
The law change that bans smacking came into force at June after a fierce public debate. Its implementation is now being questioned.
Family First New Zealand today released testimony from a family that says it has been traumatised by being reported under the law. The family is not named.
The group's national director Bob McCoskrie said the family's experience was a warning to other parents.
The testimony from "a Kiwi mum" said CYF left a card at her home and she left six messages over four days with a care and protection officer before established contact.
She was told that her child, referred to as "X" in the testimony, had shown aggressive behaviour towards another student and when questioned told a teacher there had been a smacking.
Under new policy, teachers were required to report all smacking incidents to CYF.
The mother was questioned and assured the matter would not be taken further.
"X had woken up in a bad mood that particular day and was very reluctant and unhelpful at getting ready for school. I told X to hurry up - X was refusing and throwing a wobbly, so I ended up smacking X on the hand. I also gave X a bit of a push into the room to get my child moving. This was probably wrong of me, and done in the heat of the moment.
"X responded by more yelling and giving me an evil look. It wasn't a good morning. This sort of thing doesn't happen very often, but it does happen."
The statement from the mother said that the teacher seemed to have asked her child leading questions.
"X is worried that they will be taken away, and it is really hard to get X to talk about it. X can also be a bit of a drama queen, and could have exaggerated to the teacher at the time."
In a second incident two months later, three police officers arrived at he family's home, acting on a complaint from a neighbour.
The mother had smacked her child on the backside with the palm of her hand during an incident around the trampoline in the backyard.
"The police officers were very kind, but warned me of a possible arrest if this sort of thing happened again.
"This new law seems to me, only to be creating insecurity for families," the mother said.
- NZPA
