Me too. I agree.

What morons! http://fornits.com/wwf/images/smiles/icon_flame.gif

I ran out in the street and almost got hit by a car. that was the only time my father ever spanked me, and I sure as hell never ran out in front of any other cars.

when used properly, physical discipline is good. you absolutely cannot do it when you're still mad though.

One thing that we must realize here is that spanking and abuse are two completely different things. My parents spanked me. They never used anything but their hand, and the only time that either of them hit me anywhere but on my bottom was when I was 12, and I was too old to be spanked anyway. It was the last time that I was physically punished. I only got spanked when I really did something that was bad or that I could be harmed from doing, and it NEVER hurt for more than a couple seconds. It wasn't seen too often, and the occurences became fewer as I got older. Abuse is totally different. It is hitting a child often for little or no pretext and harming them so that it hurts for a good while. It takes place much more often than necessary, and it is more of a reaction to the parent's anger rather than physical reinforcement. I think that younger children (late 2 yrs to around 9 yrs., depending on how mentally/socially developed they are) don't quite understand taking away priveleges the way that teenagers do. They need a quicker reinforcement, and to me, spanking was, and still is, the way to go. Just don't do it out of anger, and don't really hurt the kids. I don't regret one bit my parents spanking me. I am actually really glad that they did.

*edit*

MilleniumZeus, thank you. I just graduated HS in may, and am going to college now. I got tired of hearing all kinds of kids say crap like "when my mom gives me shit, I just slap her in her face," or my personal favorite:"my parents can't tell me what to do." One of these kids' parents is somebody I have great respect for, and I can assure you is neither abusive or negligent. I seriously heard comments just like these from not just a few but probably 30% of my classmates (and no, I didn't go to an inner-city school. I went to a public school in a rural community that is almost completely conservative, not to mention all of the money from horse farms. (deep horse country)). To all of you parents: although it is definitely not my space to tell you how to raise your children, I hope you seriously put some time into deciding what kind of disciplinary system you will use with your children, because I am sure you don't want kids that totally disrespect you.

and btw, beating or ass whipping does not equal spanking. My parents also made sure to tell me why I was spanked, and they would ALWAYS hug me and tell me that they loved me sometime shortly afterward.

Spanking is good as long as it is used as a disciplinary tool and not an alleviate aggression tool. However, in my humble opinion, spankings should always be with the hand (as mentioned earlier) in this manner you are in direct control of the amount of pressure and the force behind the impact... and as such, you can ensure that you do not permanently harm the child.