Being a father of two (ages 4 & 1) I have on rare occasion hand slapped my older son on his bottom through clothing, not a traditional bend over spanking as that connotation is too far and sort of degrading in my opinion. My wife and I agree with the same measures and both communicate constantly to create a universal standard of expectations, morals, reprimands and consequences. I'm not for or against physical punishment per se but when children are growing and learning the boundaries they will cross them many times on purpose and we feel it necessary to give a firm butt slap on rare occasion. We generally prefer the naughty spot, with apologises and discussion of why they went there in the first place. I could count the total lifetime butt slaps for my son on less than my 10 fingers in his 4 years so far. It worked for my brother, sister and I (we received wooden spoon on the bum and slaps too growing up), it worked for my parents (had it more physical and impacting), my grandparents (had it from teachers with canes or belts and far worse physical impacts) and my great grandparents (beyond acceptable laws these days in Australia). I respect my parents, parental methods and results they achieved with my siblings and myself. I will do well with my children to raise them half as well as my parents or grand parents did. Overall when I compare my children's behaviour to my friends and family, who do not choose to "physically discipline" their children at all, I see a marked difference in their effectiveness and their children's acceptable behaviour too. I'd rather be a little too harsh with my children for their long term growth and character benefits than too relaxed and raise lazy know-it-alls thanks. There is already far too much of that in the modern generations, IMO. It's all subjective and should be left to parents within acceptable societal and cultural parameters. There should never be anything along the lines of abuse but reversely parenting should not be the too relaxed whatever type attitude either. No parent ever had to get a license or take a course for their skills and yet we have to get a license to drive a car or agree to contractual terms for many other aspects of our lives. There is no universal rule-set to raising children.