Wollongong's own version of the novel The Slap played out in court yesterday when a stepfather was cleared of assault after clipping his teen stepson over the head and grabbing his arm in an attempt to get him to do the washing up.
Dismissing the assault charge, Judge Paul Conlon (pictured right) issued a scathing attack on ‘‘self-proclaimed experts’’ who demanded alternatives to physically disciplining kids.

‘‘Tell ’em they’re dreamin’,’’ he said, borrowing a line from the Australian movie The Castle.

‘‘[It] is a sad day when caring parents, attempting to impart some discipline to [their] little princes and princesses, are dragged before our courts and have convictions imposed against them ...,’’ he said.

‘‘I can hear the self-proclaimed experts remonstrating and waving a finger, saying: ‘There are other ways of disciplining a child than the application of some physical force’ - and of course, there are.

‘‘You could make them stand in the corner or you could send them to their room, where no doubt they will amuse themselves with video games [or] with their mobile phones, where they can text their friends telling them how much ‘life sux’.

"One of the reasons so many young people find themselves in trouble with the law is that there has been an absence of any effective discipline in their lives ... I am comfortable in saying that my experience in these matters comes from living in the 'real world'...," Judge Conlon said.