Reasonable discipline, including minor corporal punishment, should be part of a parenting style. I work around children in a very liberal environment and some of these kids or the very worst. Some of them really do need a humiliating smack on the behind. There is nothing wrong with them learning about humble pie.
As far as people remembering getting punished...good. The question is did you repeat the bad behavior the next time?
Articles like this exist because certain idiots can’t distinguish between a swat and beating a child to death.
Did I ever get spanked? Yeah. I took my younger siblings swimming in the pond. I was about 6, they were 3 and 2. Never mind that a 6 year old shouldn’t have been watching a couple of toddlers, but that’s another story. Sister told, and I got my butt blistered. Did I ever go swimming in the pond again? Yes. Did I take them? No. Lesson learned. Somewhat—I always was a stubborn child! :)
There is a world for children who have never been spanked.....
Brats.
I can respect a parent who themselves were victims of true abuse being reluctant or refusing to ever strike a child. However to claim that any physical act against a child is abuse is nonsense. I would never lash out at a child in anger, and that's the biggest problem with the saps in this article... every one of them was unable to control their own tempers, and because they lashed out in anger at their children, they think everyone who ever lays a hand on their child does so in that manner.
Personally, I don’t like the caution against “lashing out in anger”, or however you want to phrase it.
I think it’s psychotic if you lash out when you’re happy, or too calm, or whatever. Physical punishment should be coupled and identified with the “anger”. What’s wrong with being angry? It makes more sense. When the parent shows anger, the kid knows now to stop before it goes to the physical.
And don’t hand the nonsense that you’re more likely to be “abusive” if you’re angry. More likely, maybe, but still very small % chance of being truly abusive as to not count.
As for remembering? I remember only being spanked once. I know I was hit when a toddler, which I simply cannot remember as a matter of course, because I was told so. They almost never needed to hit me because the message got through. I got a few more “tongue-lashings” than I got spankings.