I don’t think spanking is necessarily wrong and I went to college in psychology and behavioral neuroscience. The counter-arguments always sounded like hippy-trippy justification rather than real evidence at least the way I see it. I went to a public high school that had corporal punishment as an option. Some people see that as barbaric but it was actually the opposite. The choice was always 3 licks (with a paddle), three days suspension or three weekend days of detention. Only an idiot would take anything other than the paddling. It didn’t hurt at all and it was over in a matter of seconds never to be discussed again. I honestly wish that was still an option in the working world. I wish I could pick a ritualistic paddling over even the most mundane management lectures that I have been forced to sit through over the years because that would have been much more convenient.
My parents spanked me only a few times and it was always well deserved and a special event. They never tried to actually hurt me because the spankings themselves didn’t really hurt at all. It was just a notice that I did something extra-special wrong that had to be addressed. I have done the same with my daughters. My oldest daughter is a kind soul that will not even try to defend herself from her little sister who is, quite frankly, a bully.
My daughters didn’t know that I was watching this past weekend when my youngest escalated an otherwise calm situation and kicked her sister straight in the knee very hard making her double over and cry out in pain and legitimately so. I swooped in, spanked her hard and put the fear of God in her through a loud lecture that would make a drill sergeant proud. Nothing else has worked but that approach seems to and I do not regret it. She is a very talented and beautiful girl but she does have some not so kind tendencies that lots of people have complained about and it is my job as her father to bring her back in line while she is young.
Casual spanking and actual beatings are completely different concepts. The former is meant to shame and not inflict physical harm while the latter is physical retribution specifically intended to cause physical pain. As long as we keep those concepts separate, I am in favor of limited spankings and corporal punishment but obviously not physical abuse.