Marter said:
you'll instil good values in them, and they won't misbehave because they know it's wrong.
for the most part you are right, but you are wrong in this little bit
sometimes kids will "test" the boundaries of parents to know how much they can get away with, "If" you talk to them, "most" of the time it will work
but its in a childrens nature to keep pushing the parent untill stopped, sometimes, the kid will push to the verge of unreasonable even after being told otherwise, wich then in turn makes it obvious that more "drastic" measures are to be taken
not every child is the same, and not all of them do this, but if things do get too much out of hand, some spanking is "OK"
i say this from personal experience, from dealing with my kid, and from knowing what has happened with my ex wife who was not given enough "boundaries" and did wathever she wanted to do, with her parents permission or not, and never received more serious punishment than a "scold", this in turn has made her more "strict" against my son and while she still talks with our kid (like me) if things do get out of hand well, we both (either she or I) spank the kid
he cries and makes wathever he can to make us feel "guilty" (YES, THIS IS A CONCEPT EVEN 1 YEAR OLD KIDS ALREADY KNOWS) but the "spanking" Isnt that "hard", so we know those "tears" are fake
its important that the parent knows his kid, and also knows when is appropiate to give phisical discouragement from some behaviours, i mean, i´m not going to spank him if he eats all the candy in the drawer, but i will if he is acting unreasonable and hitting and spitting and biting people (wich happened twice, once we talked, the second time we spanked)
Phisical discouragement should not be to inflict "pain" into the kid, the mere act of "slapping" his butt with ease will make him surprised and understand its punishment for the "wrong" things he did, he will not feel pain, but he will know its wrong to do those things
i was a spanked kid my self, and courious thing is, my mom is the one that spanked me, and i love her, my dad never ever put a finguer on me, but i am afraid of him, why? he has a way of "talkind" that makes you feel like you are vermin, wich is more scarring than some slapps to the tushie