47 year old, male, Jewish Canadian.
No, No, and No!
I can’t hit my spouse, I can’t hit my employees, but I can hit my children? I don’t get it.
As others have said, it depends on what you define as “spanking”
If you’re asking about putting them over my knee, or using a belt, hairbrush, wooden spoon, etc… No, I have never done that.
If you’re asking about a little swat on the butt to get their attention, I may have done this less than a handful of times with all three of my children. 7,9, and 11.
47 White Canadian, non-religious upbringing.
I don’t really approve of spanking and a punishment as I believe it’s a slippery slope… where do you go if that fails?
I’m “good cop” in my house, my kids love me, and they know I love them more than anything so usually, just me being upset with or disappointed in them is enough.
In our house, their world stops completely until they do what is asked, apologize, etc… meanwhile the rest of world continues without them.
A time out in their bedroom with nothing (except maybe a book) usually has them back to a more manageable temperament within an hour.
I sometimes give them 2 options for punishment - they will pick the lesser of 2 evils.
I’ve also taught my children how to calm their nerves by using breathing techniques which really helps them with their managing their own emotions.
I never have spanked my child. She’s 16 now. My dad used to hit me and schools still used corporal punishment when I was a kid (yes, including the public schools). I was never struck by an adult with any other result than it angering me and making want to hit back. It didn’t matter who was doing the hitting. I figure that my reaction was not uncommon. Corporal punishment is, therefore, ineffective if you have any goal other than making a kid want to hit you back.
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Age and Gender * Male, 61
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Race/Culture/Religion* White, upper Midwest white-bread, Christian
3.) Country residing in USA
1.) Do you spank any kids/family relatives currently? No, my kids are grown up. I never spanked them as children - my son hit me once and I slapped his hand, and instantly regretted it. It doesn’t seem to have scarred him.
2.) Do you approve of spanking? In theory, yes. In practice, it never seemed to be the right occasion. When I was genuinely angry with them, they could tell. And they were good kids pretty consistently. I once made my daughter cry for about ten minutes by telling her that I was very disappointed in her behavior.
*3.) If you don’t approve, would you ever be driven to spank your kids? * Like I say, it just never came up. I didn’t try to avoid it - I never had to, because yelling/frowning/timeouts/etc. worked. I tried to do more telling them what they should do, and praising them when they did something good, than paying attention to bad things.
To the extent I had any effect, it worked. Did you know my son is graduating with straight A’s (and has a line on a job), and my daughter just bought her first house?
Let me show you a few pictures…
Regards,
Shodan
1.) 44 Male
2.) White, Christian
3.) USA
1.) No. I have 2 children, 14 and 13, and gave them swat on the butt a couple times for talking into the night instead of going to sleep. Horrified me after the second time. Never did it again.
2.) No. If you can’t hit a spouse or other adult, why would it be okay to hit a child?
3.) No.
You can’t teach a child to not hit things by hitting them.
I swatted my kids a few times before the age of 4 when they were acting out of control in an angry manner. Hardly a spanking, just enough to shock them out of the behavior, not as punishment. I was beaten as a child, I know the difference.
I did. I don’t now, because any one of them could kick my ass. 
And I actually regret doing it. People should not be allowed to have children until they’ve passed some sort of training for it.
As Dr. Becker used to say: “…yet you need a license to sell real estate.”