There's a difference between spanking and abusing children.
But since spanking is apparently a "bad" thing to do, tell me some better ways to punish a kid? What exactly is the "best" way to punish your child.
I'm all ears.
If are parenting as you should, it should never get to that point Banshee.
That being said, in raising my first three, the implied threat that Dad was going to get mad was far more effective then actually doing it. My daughter has since told me that the three of them always know when what they called my "Darth Vader" voice showed up, it was time to back off and regroup.
One of the things I'm proudest of as a parent was that we put the work in and it paid off. It got to be a bit of a joke in our house when one of the kids would ask to be 'grounded' so they could stay home instead of hanging with their friends on occasion.