And I emphasise fanning the behind. The minute a parent picks up a weapon, any weapon, other than their hand, that parent's guilty of child abuse.Nonsense. I got the strap a couple of times when I was past the point where a smack on my ass would do anything but make me laugh.
I harbored no ill will toward my Dad for getting what I deserved and I never had to use the strap on either of my daughters.
You're talking to someone who got spanked for merely making mistakes as well as for downright misbehaviour, and from parents (my mother in particular; my father never believed in the strap, his hand was quite enough) who didn't know the difference between the two and probably would have gone nuclear if you'd tried to tell them the difference.
I never used anything other than my hand with my son, and I only ever had to fan his behind a few times. (And I never punished him merely for making a mistake.)