Failure to hit your children is not the same as lacking in firm, strict, and consistent discipline.
sitetest
I say failure to be *willing* to use the “hit” is indeed the same. (”Don’t think I won’t do it!”) I don’t have to now, I was hardly ever struck when a child myself, but I knew it could come. But it would be fair.
It’s like our foreign policy, which has become very “nice”. Look where it gets us. I prefer a co-worker who said after 9/11 “Operation Sea of Glass” to anything we actually did.
Speak softly and carry a big stick!