spanking or not?

Nope.
Teaches him one thing. Violence is an answer and when you are bigger than someone beating them up is how you get your way.
Has NOTHING to do with teaching them right from wrong.
Kids cannot see your objective, nor will they believe you if your excuse contradicts your actions... nor should they.
They can only see and WILL only LEARN from your tactics; in this case violence is the answer when I want something from someone.

Those are the facts, now my opinion.
Parents resort to spanking when they are tired, stressed and at their wits-end and cannot think of what to do next to:
Get their attention
Get them to listen
Get them to/not to _____
And, finally, the one that break out the belt/hand of those who swore they would never hit their kids; when the kid does something that scares the HOLY SHIT out of them

So, they hit the kid. Justified by past parents, others who say they "turned out GREAT", use words like "pat" and "spank" (never think reality: hitting and assult... though that is what it is, what it would be if someone did it to you just to get you to listen to them or to sit down at work). Justify it by telling themselves, "it's only a last resort" & "my family turned out great, except ____ and that's different", "other people need counseling to help them learn how to ______ not me! I've already raised ____ kids!"....
& the hits just keep coming....
But they are all lies.
Hitting is hitting... if you don't feel like it is justified against you... it is not against them.
There is not ONE situation that cannot be resolved without violence, not ONE.
Therefore, there is no excuse... I don't give a shit how many generations have done it for how long, that is the stupidest excuse I have ever heard of... I had lead paint in my room and I turned out fine... dumb.

[monster]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Nope.
Teaches him one thing. Violence is an answer and when you are bigger than someone beating them up is how you get your way.
Has NOTHING to do with teaching them right from wrong.
Kids cannot see your objective, nor will they believe you if your excuse contradicts your actions... nor should they.
They can only see and WILL only LEARN from your tactics; in this case violence is the answer when I want something from someone.

Those are the facts

No they are not. They are opinions.

Consider the case of the parent who "spanks" (this is only used in kinky terms in the UK -"smacks" is the term there) only at certain levels of behaviour of for certain misdemeanours (for example life-endangering ones).

They do not spank everytime they want their kid to obey, so how is this teaching that beating people up is the way to get their own way? where is the proof that this is what children who are spanked understand? No proof = no fact.

/pedant