Okay, I think Eddie totally missed the mark here. Yes, attitudes have changed towards corporal punishment but the red flag for me is her father yelled at her and called her worthless. Clearly his abuse was not limited to an 'old fashioned' spanking. The thing is, her mother allowed it to happen thus essentially enabling the father. What's to say she won't just stand back and let him behave that way if the grand-child upsets him. The other red flag is the father's lack of recognition that his behaviour was wrong. Methinks a bit more thought needs to be given to the situation and alternate visiting options provided besides unsupervised sleep-overs until the parents feel they can trust the grand-parents.