I know I'm whining, but I wish corporal punishment had been criminalized a few decades earlier.

[uppityperson]

43. It is a difficult topic because it combines desire to do right with our emotional childhood memories

I was spanked as a child, a couple times way overly because of the times and my parents feeling they could not back down on the consequences they stupidly set. I hit my child twice. Once as an immediate response to inexpectedly being bit, once I hit them lightly on the palm with an electeical cord when they were persistedly going after electrical cords and and biting them. The first was an automatic reaction and yes, I felt awful afterwards. The other, electrical cord biting one, was after days of working with other ways, distracting, moving away, watching watching watching and because I was so concerned said child would electrocute themselves in that one moment my attention was elsewhere. Yes, my house was childproofed but everywhere in the world was not.

So, no bruises, agree for sure with memories of avoiding gym class for a wk are in my past. More than once is for the parent, interesting way of putting it. And it is ok to say you made a mistake in putting forth a stupid consequence.

Then there is also the difficulty of defining what is meant by the terms "spank" and related terms.

Thank you for the civil discussion.