   dilemmas A firm, gentle hand  Edna's husband claims he was
never hurt by being beaten when he was young and though he says
he'd never beat their three-year-old son, he's not averse to
doling out the odd smack. She feels that any violence to
children is unacceptable. How can they work things out?  If
anyone ever said that my son was "asking for a smack" I would
turn into a gibbering mass of rage, perfectly prepared to kill,
let alone smack, the person who suggested it. And that's the
problem with the subject of smacking: like smacking itself, it's
an emotional area that provokes irrational and hot-blooded
views. But if Edna's going to make any headway with her husband
she has to remain cool and clear-headed, and deliver her
arguments again and again in a logical way.  Presumably the spot
she and her husband are in at the moment is the one where he
accuses her of being soft and she accuses him of being a
barbarian. But Edna must try to convince her husband that taking
non-violence on board will not turn him