Hitting

I was talking with some of my students before class today and the topic of hitting came up. I told them that there was no hitting at my house, ever. I told them the story of how I spanked my youngest child after she unbuckled herself from her car seat at the age of two, and then I told them I never did it again. I told them that my daughters aren't allowed to hit each other. Those kids were so peculiar! They were incredulous... they kept asking, "You don't hit your kids???" "What if they hit the wall?" "What if they hit the door?" "You really don't hit your kids?"
I was struck by how normal it must be for all of them to get hit. These are my 7th grade special ed students. I have them for 50 minutes out of the school day, and sometimes I am ready to strangle them by the time we're done. I wonder what it would be like to have them all the time, and be their parents. I wonder if I would hit them?
A few minutes later one of them was staring at me kind of funny. I gave him a goofy look and asked him what he was staring at me for. He said, "I wish you were my mom, because them I wouldn't get hit."
I pulled him out of his next class and took him to the office, sat him down and asked him exactly what he meant by "hit." He said his dad only hits him if he does something really bad, like get an F. (He is learning disabled, by the way.) He said his dad hits him on his hand.
Well, parents are allowed to hit their kids. I made him promise that if he ever felt unsafe he would tell me. Then I had to let it go. Except I haven't.