Shelley+Opinion+Writing

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**__ Have we become a bunch of softies? __**
While many of us would have thought Aucklanders have it easy, 46% of the country said Auckland is the toughest town, followed by Tokoroa and Rotorua. One of the sunniest towns in the country, Nelson, was also shown to be the softest town, followed by Queenstown and Gore, so what does that make the rest of us! Have we stopped enjoying the great outdoors as much as we used to?   The 21st century, supposedly one of the most modern times yet. Have people started to soften up over time? I think this is true, but let’s hear both sides. New Zealand has gone soft because, our kids have gone soft, spending too much time in front of TV and electronic games and not enough time just being kids. We have it pretty easy now with nearly half of those surveyed (43%) saying the softest decade is the early years of the 2000’s while many think the toughest times were the 1930s. So what are we doing differently that has made us so decidedly delicate? For starters, we've become obsessed with how we look. According to tests done by Natures Fresh, A quarter of women don't leave the house without putting on makeup and a third change into their good clothes to go to the supermarket. And a third of men now regularly use product in their hair maybe a gentle metro sexual gel rather than a hard hairspray. Now, again according to Natures Fresh, when it comes to professions the top three really tough professions are fireman, policeman and farmer. But housewives (who come in at No. 4) are tougher than townies (no. 11). The softest professions were deemed to be coffee barista, hairdresser, Stop-Go man on roadwork’s and, not surprisingly, advertising executives. New Zealand is not a bunch of softies because a lot of boys and men still play rugby and those kinds of sport, these people are proof that we aren’t a bunch of softies. You still have people doing tough things, fishing, rock climbing, hangliding, skydiving and bungee jumping and proving we aren’t a nation of softies. Also there are still people without much modern technology, like people living on farms who do it tough all day, every day. You still have the classic farmer, black singlet, gumboots and shorts to just above the knee, you can’t forget the Swazi, okay, maybe most farmers don’t wear the outfit I just stated. Most Farmers do still get up at ridiculous hours to milk the cows. In conclusion, I still think that New Zealand has turned into a bunch of softies because of all the reasons I have given. People have life a lot easier than they did 40 years ago, because there was less technology. There is too much technology, so kids are spending too much time on computer or playstation, causing them to spend too much time inside instead of enjoying the great outdoors. So I still think that we are becoming a bunch of softies!  

**__The Smacking Law __**
 Smacking is when a parent/caregiver slaps or smacks a child on the bottom or any other part of the body. Sue Bradford from the Green party is the person who brought the anti-smacking idea into parliament. Smack is defined as: to hit somebody with a quick stinging and usually noisy blow with the palm of the hand, to strike against, collide with, or land in something with a sharp loud noise, in this case it is smacking a child. There is a lot of controversy about whether we should make it legal or not, I take the side of the people who say smacking a child should be illegal.

Firstly, is that if a child is smacked, it could lead to the child thinking that hitting people is the right thing to do, this could cause them to get into fights at school. The child would also use violence against friends, other people and siblings. If the parent does smack a child and doesn’t tell them why they are being punished, it may confuse the child.

In addition, the referendum is, “Should a __smack__ as __good__ __parental__ __guidance__, be a criminal offence in New Zealand?” now, the first thing I find wrong with the referendum is that it says __good__ __parental__ __guidance__, how is smacking a child __good__ __parental__ __guidance__? All it’s doing is hurting a child. Even if a parent does smack their child for nearly doing something bad, like, nearly burning themselves on a hot jug then being pulled away for almost doing something bad. I find that if a child doesn’t do something wrong like burning themselves because they didn’t listen, they don’t learn anything from their mistakes.

Finally, I think that a child should have the same rights as an adult, which means no smacking children. What would adults think if the positions were reversed, and we were allowed to smack adults, but not children, then they would be trying to change the law, wouldn’t they? So, I think that us, children should have equal amount of rights as adults.

In conclusion, I think that smacking children should not be allowed, because children will only get hurt, confused and angry. Also, I think that adults should think about what would happen if the positions were switched around, so maybe they should think about passing anti-smacking as a law in New Zealand so domestic violence would be reduced.



 * I think that bullying is when someone is always doing or saying things to have control over someone else. For example bullies like to black mail people if they know their deepest secrets, call people nasty names, spreading nasty comments/rumours about them, threatening them like “I’m gonna get you”, physically hurting them like punching or kicking them or making them do things that make them feel uncomfortable. There are many types of bullies like verbal is when you use your mouth for the bullying, physical bullying is when you punch or kick them, mental/emotional is when you get right down to their feelings and cyber bullying is when you use technology like cell phones or chat sites.

Usually most of the bullies are either bigger or bulkier or older then the victim which makes it easier to take control over the person who’s getting bullied, sometimes it can even be an adult. I think that people bully just to get the fame, to get attention, and they mostly do it in front of others to be tough, cool and look scary. But sometimes it doesn’t work and people just think they have anger problems. Some bullies only bully because they are also getting bullied themselves and feel the need to take it out on someone else. I think bullies try looking for an easy target like someone who is small, innocent and kind because they know that they will break easily.

I think that if someone is being bullied at school they should take note of who the person/s is that is being a bully, and should straight away go and tell a teacher or principal and they will take care of it quickly even if the bully says “don’t be a nark” or “I’ll smash you if you tell anyone” don’t listen and do it anyway, because it’s most likely they’ll get in a lot of trouble and not do it again.

I think that bullying is a thing that happens all over the world, in every country, in every town and in every school. If you’re walking past and see an innocent person getting bullied, don’t try to intervene because that just might make things worse and the outcome will be even more damaged, pick up your legs and run and tell someone like a parent, teacher or principal so they can do something about it. Every school should study and learn about bullying and what you can do to prevent it so that just in case someone becomes a victim of a bully they’ll know what to do.**

I should have researched this topic, so I had actual information. I needed to proof read this, edit and then proof read it again!

