My understanding from listening to child psychologists on the subject is that *mild* corporal punishment is appropriate in a narrow age range (I can't find the criteria). Furthermore, I believe that one can use corporal 'attention-getting' (e.g. Junior is about to run into the street, you slap his shoulder to get his attention so he'll stop) on occasion without harmful effects. The problem is that the vast majority of parents have NO idea about the guidelines and use physical violence to release their anger/frustration at a misbehaving child. This can be *very* psychologically damaging. (Here come the responses from the "My parents hit me every day and I'm....Earth to Buzz Aldrin, what's the frequency Kenneth?...fine!" types...:-D...) MOre info here: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20021015/1447.html My personal opinion is that corporal punishment should be severely stigmatized and emphasis should be put on the narrow set of conditions when it is permissible. Since the above position is probably too nuanced, I would prefer that corporal punishment be banned, since I believe the abuse of it produces far more harm than the appropriate use of it does good.

I personally don't find it acceptable to place children in a separate category from all other people, and treat them as subhuman. So I don't see why violence of any kind, at any degree, should be any more acceptable when inflicted upon a young human than when inflicted upon a mature human. In fact, since young humans are already at such a disadvantage physically and emotionally, I find striking a child to be even more appalling than striking another adult, and think it should be AT LEAST equally unlawful. To use violence against one's OWN child definitely goes far beyond my ethical boundaries.

I can't believe that anyone would want to use corporal punishment on an innocent child. Children are to be loved and cared for. Everything they do is innocent. Their concept of right and wrong is not learned yet. They don't understand in the way you do. Teach them gently.

Oh God, I'm gonna get hammered in this one but... I love both my kids very much and sorry but yes, I've found that a slap in the butt is sometimes necessary discipline as your kid has willingly done something you've told him not to do or are knowingly disrespectful to you for example. The thing is (and it is a very fine line)not to get extremely angry or discharge your frustrations on the kid (I certainly try hard not to, believe me I count to 10 whenever possible).

NEVER. NEVER. This is my answer to a similar question: A leather belt was used by my mother and his own belt was used by my Dad....sometimes his had a metal end on it. The only other 'corporal' punishment was a slap to the face. NO, NO. I do not think that in any way it made me a better adult. I know that it did not make my older brother a better adult because he used corporal punishment on his sons and worse on 2 of his 3 wives---"the third wife laid down the law" so he never hurt her physically when he was drinking. (In every way he acted out at his family as an alcoholic just LIKE our father did. My younger sister was 'spanked', beaten, more than once with a belt and there is no doubt that it DID NOT make her a better adult. In fact, it led her to hate herself, have very poor self image, believed that she was no good in every way and she could never find peace with/from God. Her 2 worst "spankings" beatings with a belt were: at age 7 by our young 24 yr "saintly" mother; and, at age 17 by our father. Nobody remembers why she was 'spanked for doing something wrong" at age 7. I remember every blow and the yelling at her and her fighting to get away from mother's hold on her with one hand and swinging the belt with the other.At age 8, I was powerless as were my brothers, age 6 and 9. At age 17 in 1957, she still lived at home aand bought a car after getting a great job after her June 1957 graduation. Most Saturday nights she and a girl friend would go to a movie, bowling, skating, and similar activities that were available to teenagers in the 1950's over 30 years before the sexual revolution and ease in buying beer, and the use of heroin primarily in the NE U.S. One night she and her girl friend did not just 'drag' (as in the movie, "American Graffitti" that was filmed at the favorite drive-in, round, at one of the street that was crowded by teenagers every Fri and Sat nights) the street and yell at the boys, but they left town and drove 60-plus miles away AND she arrived home at 8:00 a.m. When she opened the front door father demanded that she go to her room...our mother and I were in the kitchen and, as at age 9, I could only listen to her screams because my interference at 18 would just have meant that he would become even more angry and beat me too. Same for our mother. (That evening she called our grandmother and was on the plane to travel 5 states away the very next morning.) What he had done: Made her remove her clothing all except bra and panties, used his stiff narrow belt with a metal end to beat on her so hard so long. The incident was not mentioned by our parents. You see, he had decided that she was out there having sex with one or more boys---being liki him probably several times a week when at his favorite bar owned by the woman he had slept with for several years before alcohol killed him at 47. How "in God's green earth" could those 'spankings' have made her a better adult. She never spanked her own kids who are 3 fine adults now. She died at 57. God was merciful for she was happy one minute and dead the next, before her son could walk around the table, when an anyourism broke in the front of her head. Sadly, the laws making such treatment Child Abuse did not come until the 80's. I realize that some adults can bury such memories so deed that they do not realize the power those buried feelings have on their adult lives.

I believe in using a stepup system of discipline. With spanking being the ultimate punishment and only used in severe situations. The equivalent of the death penalty if you want to think of it that way. Spanking should not be the first or only response to misbehavior, but it should be used for serious misbehaving or when the milder methods have not gotten the desired results. I realize that many people can not seperate spanking from beatings..but there is a difference. Also the reason that there is different criteria applied to children then to adults is because of the cognitive abilities of each.

NEVER!!!!!!!! you never punish a child that a child feels pain or fear, our children are our future and we must show them understanding and support in all they do and try to do, when your child makes a mistake teach your child, smacking a child is showing abuse and the child learns from that, better to teach them that abuse is wrong!!!!!!!

when you stop supportting you kid then you can stop spanking. as long as they live under your roof and you are supporting the kid no matter how old they are you have the right to spank them. my oldest daughter lived with us until she was 22 and the last time she got spanked she was 19.