Society is FUCKED these days. I’m on your side, Catsix.
Now, I don’t think I’d ever use the hot sauce method on my kid, but I do believe in the wonders of a deft smack across the behind, and probably some people who find that offensive might not baulk at the sauce.
Any punishment, be it physical or otherwise, can constitute abuse if it is done wrongly. I was smacked as a child very rarely. I remember some of those incidents because they were simply so out of the normal routine for me. However, I remember them with neutrality, and I don’t feel any twinge of emotion whatsoever in doing so. On the other hand, they were specific occasions on which I received “the look” or an " I. AM. VERRRRY. DIS.A.POINTED. IN. YOU" treatment, and those memories bite.
You, as a parent, will know your kids like nobody else can. You will know the limits. ALL punishment is, by its nature, adversarial. ALL punishment is about “doing what the big people want or bad things will happen” (as somebody mentioned in this thread), because that’s the freakin’ way life is when you’re a kid. You can’t think for yourself as an adult can. If you run across the road when the crossing signals are red, despite the “big people” yelling at you not to do so, then “a bad thing might happen” and being mown down by a Chevy would be a sight worse than pepper on the tongue.
The method of punishment (within reason) is unimportant. It’s the way it’s applied. Reasoning with kids is all well and good, but it’s not always possible. I haven’t smacked my son in a couple of years, but that doesn’t mean I’ve suddenly become opposed to the method. I believe in it, but now he’s old enough to be given a bit of verbal punishment - and I’m capable of making him cry every bit as much with that. It’s about limits, not method.