ENCORE: Parents Talk - Do You Spank Your Kids?

I don't know about you but I was spanked as a child.

Both my mom and dad used spanking as punishment for something one of us kids may have done wrong. It was infrequent, but it was completely effective. Whatever I had done, well, I wasn't going to do it again after a firm swat on the backside.

Still, I swore I would never spank my own children if I had them. I had this idea in my head that I would always be able to calmly discuss the problem at hand and remedy it with just a few strong words or even a timeout. 

That's not entirely true.

Children, especially ones under the age of five, lack a certain amount of reason and control over their emotions that make that scenario work 100 percent of the time. Yes, timeouts have been effective in our house, but there are times when they haven't worked at all.

It's frustrating when your child disobeys you or doesn't listen to reason - no question about it. But I can't bring myself to resort to spanking. I want them to understand what they did wrong, not be afraid that I will hit them.

What are your thoughts on spanking? Do you spank? Why or why not? Tell us in the comments.