What's your opinion? At some age I do think that reasonable spanking is acceptable as a punishment but it should not be common and it should not be overly painful. I feel like this trend of "Gentle parenting" makes weak people and we end up with the bullshit in our society today. Things like "participation awards" and caring more about "self esteem" than effort and merit. From the post: >>When I’m asked about my opinion on smacking – or spanking as it’s known in the US – my first thought is of previous generations, such my father-in-law. My wife’s father came from a different era. Brought up in a poor rural area of the US at the end of the First World War, his own father died of Spanish Flu, leaving him as the sole breadwinner for his family at just ten-years-old. He never had a proper education. When he had children of his own, he had a simple approach to discipline. He would say: ‘If you don’t listen, you’ll have to feel.’ Thankfully, my wife listened and was never smacked. But her brothers were smacked occasionally when they didn’t listen. All four children became exemplary college-educated adults.