I know that this is a topic that people get heated about so I posted in in controversy Corner. In my opinion it is. I was spanked constantly growing up for every little thing. It made me terrified of my parents. I was whipped with belts, flyswatters, their hands and one time a hickory switch which left terrible welts on my legs. My husband was spanked growing up with a large wooden paddle so hard that he would be covered in bruises and could not sit down for days. I could not ever imagine spanking my own children, not even lightly. We both live in the southern US (rural Alabama) and we are the only parents we know who dont spank our kids. It is still very normalised here, and the schools around were I live still paddle students.