Smacking, caning, beating . . . however parents do it, experts say physical

HERA Lee Kwei-chun was shocked when she saw them. There was the mother-of-two portrayed in her children's drawings as a fierce tiger with protruding feline teeth, one hand on her hips and the other wielding a cane.

The cane gave the clue. Ms Lee, 40, used it to thrash her daughter, eight, and son, four, when they misbehaved.

As the children grew, it became obvious it was not only their image of their mother that had been affected by her behaviour. Eventually, side effects surfaced: her daughter became timid, her son defiant. For Ms Lee, however, corporal punishment had not been a sadistic choice; like many parents she had simply run out of other ideas. As a mother, she did not enjoy hurting her children.

Ms Lee is hardly unique. Cases under investigation by the Social Welfare Department are rising and concern over the treatment of children has triggered a government study into the way parents discipline them. A recent court case saw two private tutors spend three weeks in jail after beating two youngsters.

'After beating them, you feel hurt and guilty yourself,' Ms Lee acknowledges.

Then came a critical moment in her life as a mother. 'When a poster promoting a course named 'Goodbye To The Cane' on a publicity board in the housing estate caught my eyes, I was amazed, and wondered if I could do that.' She took the challenge. She attended one of two workshops the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society organised in Tuen Mun last December, to introduce a parenting alternative to corporal punishment. Social workers say this area has the highest incidence of child abuse in Hong Kong.

'Now I have ditched my cane for six months and am persisting with the new parenting methods I learned from the course. I find it very effective.' she says.