I'm SOOO sick of the people who claim spanking is child abuse. In some cases, yes. But in most cases, it's absolutely not.

I believe there are some children who need to be spanked. However, there are obvious rules to this. My personal explanation of spanking.

-Spanking should ONLY be used as a last resort, after ALL other punishment methods have been tried. (Again, most kids respond well to plenty of other punishments, and will never need a spank in their life.)

-The child needs to be old enough to understand punishment/praise, and what they did wrong. It depends on the child, but my personal general rule is 2.5+ years. Anything younger is plain abuse since they can't learn from it.

-Understand how firm you're actually spanking. The goal is NOT to harm your child.

-Tell your child exactly what they did wrong, and ask them if they understand. Explain to them what you're about to do, and why. All of this, calm and without anger, but in a firm tone. Spanking while angry, and without explanation, is wrong, and will send the opposite message. The child needs to know that it's not okay to "hit whenever you want" or "hitting because you're mad." That's one of the biggest mistakes parents can make. It sends the wrong message and often results in more misbehavior. They need to know WHY, and what led to this dramatic level of punishment.

Spanks are only abusive if done carelessly. It's very very easy to cross that line. They are a very severe form of punishment, and should be a rare occurrence. People who slap, throw, grab, or otherwise abuse their children are not doing it out of love or respect for their kids, they're doing it because they don't want to take the time to teach them, or don't want to "deal with" their kids. It's disgusting. There are right and wrong ways to spank.

Again, this is my opinion, and I know most of you will bash me for it, but for those of you who think people who spank are monsters: we're not. We love our children just like you, and have a different style of parenting. No one is telling you you need to spank your child, and you shouldn't tell others not to unless there's a serious reason to suspect actual abuse. Rant over.