Hope for America!!

[Chad32]

Pretty much this. My father is very authoritarian, and was fond of giving me the belt. Now I'm older, and I don't know how to deal with my nieces without hitting them too.

If you can deal with adults without hitting them, you can deal with children without hitting them.

Think of it like this:  A child performs a behaviour that you deem undesirable or even dangerous and you hit the child to stop the behaviour and elicit what is, in your view, a more appropriate or safe behaviour.  If you did that to an adult, you'd be arrested.

Boru

Hit a child, and it's called discipline. Hit an adult, and it's called assault. I think that's the main reason they pick the rear end to hit as well, because you get a different reaction when you hit a kid in a place where the public can see it.