Should children be spanked?

Yes; in order to justify my response, however, I feel that parents should attempt to communicate their frustration (as best they can considering the age of the child) to the child first before going straight to spanking.

Still, there are going to be children who insist on being difficult. Sometimes in certain situations, it is easier to quickly reprimand a child physically in order to teach them the needed lesson most effectively. Children must understand the give and take of the world we live in. (Touching a hot stove will burn you, smacking a dog in the face might get you bitten, crossing the street w/o looking both ways can be fatal.) Sometimes, if an immature or irresponsible child does not have the memory of that previous spanking or doesn't fear an upcoming one, they might commit acts that could be potentially dangerous. It's almost akin to religion and law, in a sense, I feel. If one doesn't believe. If one does not believe in the validity of some form of judge, jury, and punishment, then without an innate code of ethics or common sense, they will go do whatever they dang well please. Which can clearly be dangerous for many people. And we can all agree that children do not come with software included; we basically program them as they grow; therefore, it is important that as we instill our morals and ethics into them that they realize they need to behave in the microcosms of home and school of the world they live in before they grow up and start participating in the world on a grander scale.

In order for a child to grow up and mature into a respectful teenager and young adult, he or she will have to understand that there are consequences for negative behaviors. I feel, that in my experience, the teenagers who I had the most difficulty relating to or dealing with in high school were the ones whose parents did not discipline them properly as a child. There is a golden mean for corrective spanking; moreover, I feel that the line between parenting and abuse is not as thin as the media makes it. I, to this day, respect my mother and fear her spanking me and I'm 20 years old! It clearly depends on the child, but ultimately it depends on the parent and their mental state and levels of stress and parenting situation (single, widowed, married with issues, married, etc)

I always say when I find a teenager who missed out on some crucial life lessons from bad parenting that "it's not my job to teach them that lesson; however, someone in the real world will. They are going to anger the wrong person and then they'll learn." Now the consequences for their actions then, shoot, I bet they wish all they got was a spanking.