My Opinion? Children should never be harmed, even at their worst; the psychological damage could ruin their mindset and daily functioning abilities for life. Take me for example, I was beaten up, yelled at, or intimidated for incredibly silly reasons or none at all. It greatly affected my psychological state of mind and turned me into a man afraid of eye-contact or intimate social situations. It also made me extremely anti-social and quite depressed. Allow me to personally question the various viewpoints on this very thread; Postman, your experiences molded you into a fine man. Plasticsanity, while I can understand your situational thinking, I personally believe grounding them or restricting their belongings would be much more effective than a walloping. Jordan, communication is key for us humans to reach an understanding and resolution towards our problems. Violence is never the answer. Geogree.... what punishments are acceptable, and which aren't? Please elaborate. It's good to take initiative, but you might need to evaluate what punishments are effective in the given situations and what might happen if you use them. Supernerd, I feel for you. Getting a butt whooping made me feel depressed as well. With your experiences, you can learn from them or try something else entirely. It's your decision how to interpret the punishment and what direction you choose to steer yourself in.  Killjoy, what is your perspective on punishment? Livingston. Aren't there other ways to get a message across aside from abuse? How did your beatings mold you into a better person? Tornado.... yes, some children are really bad, but do they need a whooping? Why not try therapy or anger management? Dylan, I don't believe you should purposefully annoy your parents for fun. Who knows what will happen to you? TX, taking them to understand a child in a meaningful way through discussing what problems they might have and what they feel you are doing wrong will help immensely. Titan, i strongly disagree. If you beat kids too bad, what will they do? Joneithevius, i agree with you. Was your abuse incredibly harmful? Luigi25, I'd prefer healthy communication and restriction of privileges beyond anything. Oldschool, just how far should you take punishment?  Scox44, I agree with you 100%. Nexorla, i agree immensely. Epuslso, did you ever get beat? What did you do about your uncle getting beat up?  m0ss, you are very acute. I agree with you. In the end, I believe child abuse is wrong. Love your child, and they will love you back. Life is about loving. Love life. Thanks for reading this post.   

When you hit kids to discipline them, you're teaching them that (a) violence is a completely acceptable response to any kind of problem and it solves things and (b) you're a mean parent/guardian/babysitter/whatever.

Physical discipline, be it punching, striking, starving, locking kids up, or whaling on them with a belt, doesn't work. It's as simple as that. The lifestyle of fear and hatred is what develops over time. A majority, a huge majority, of violent crime offenders and sexual offenders have a history of those events happening to them as children. They're seeing violence as normalized because it's a part of their lives as children. Slapping, smacking, etc, is the same as punching a kid in the stomach. It's aggressive, it teaches no skills regarding negotiation, and it doesn't teach a lesson except "Don't get caught."

Before anyone asks, yes, I was hit here and there as a kid and I turned out 'okay' but I'm a rarity. And yes, I have two kids and I've never hit them. I can't think of many scenarios where I will hit them. Instead, I proactively teach how to live and how to act in public and private and use my leadership as their parent to get them doing the right things before they really act out.

And if they do act out, there is plenty to do to correct their behavior. When they're a bit older, they'll be slopping out crates at the Humane Society for their... indiscretions, we'll say.

Physical discipline is not a bad tool if used within reason. If you beat the living daylights out of them,it is abuse. If you have warned them about the consequences and they do not have seem to learned a lesson from time outs,taking away a privilege/possession,doing extra work then you may have to resort to physical discipline. Some kids do not learn from talking or other punishments,and some kids become more vile with a beating.

But when you consider today's kids are getting away with murder and the parents know they cannot spank or yell at their child,the kids know they can do as they will. And we are all paying the price for inaction. Now it is good that we want to teach our kids how to behave. But sometimes a swat to the butt is a better reminder. And of course,use physical force only as a last resort. But temper the punishment with a lesson on why you had to do it. 

I a proud father of three beautiful girls. The sad truth is even though they are angels and love daddy very much they can also be monsters. Most people tell me that I don't discipline them enough that I should put em in time out and stuff, and I do, but on rare occasion I have to spank them! Not very hard even my middle daughter will laugh while I'm doing it. Its not because I'm weak, but because I don't want them to hate me. Then there is the rarest occation when one of the has really hurt the other or does something dangerous and it scares the hell out of me. I will snatch that young one up by her britches and smack her bottom and make her scream, because that severe action need an opposite reaction. Its very rare that I use my hand against them, so it has an effect to where they do not repeat the same thing again. Remember  this is only when they do something life threatening. The rarity of using your hand has a considerable effect in behavior, because they know that "Wow Daddy had to whip me so what  I did must be very bad" So yes I believe there is a moment when all things on earth must be Spanked. Even me.

Ehhhh.... I really don't think that children should be, I mean, It's one of the reasons that I have problems with apologising too much, Lying, and getting terrified when people raise their voice, even if it is not at me. But then again, I have mental issues too so yeah.

Now, I am not saying that kids who were spanked, or that do can't turn out well, but there are quite a few that don't, and like several people have said before it can make the kid think that violence is okay.