Before a child reaches an age where they can reasonably understand talking to them about cause and effect, a good swat on the hand when they touch something you have told them no to is not out of order. It gets a little hard to justify hitting a child at all when they reach 5 or 6. But it is never okay to leave any kind of mark on a child in the name of discipline. All that said, when I was raising my son he had a very bad temper and when he was 5 he threw a chair at a day care worker when told it was nap time. I was informed of this when I went to pick him up that evening. I asked the director if I could use her office for a minute. My son and I went into the office. I closed the door and told my son that this is what will happen every time he tries to hurt someone. I then spanked him on his bottom. Did not even leave a red mark. But that spanking worked it got his full attention that what he did was wrong. There was never another incident of him acting out like that. So, to me there are times when spanking a child is really the best solution. Also, there was never an incident after that needing any kind of spanking. After that we dealt with other issues where he was nonviolent with restrictions and groundings. I also would like to say that I had one of those parents that like a belt as his form of punishing us. Even when we were as young as 2. So, just because AP's dad did it is no excuse.
