I never had to spank my son. All that was needed was me saying "xxx I'm am so disappointed with this behavior right now". That's all it took for him when he was little.
However I believe that my bio father should have busted my behind, when I burnt the barn down playing with matches after he told me not to. He did nothing for whatever reason. Id love to know how someone else would have handled that?
I do think that the majority of the time a child can be reasoned with and understand how they should behave.
I have helped raise several kids over the years and never once had to spank them. Talking firm and kind worked. As an example my exs little girl that was 9 yrs old flipped her mom off from the back seat of the car. I explained how disrespectful that was and moved on.
I have a question, If a 12 year old told his mom 'F%^& you, your not taking my video game away' and then proceeded to slap her. Do you just say "oh sweetie, no no, go wash up for dinner." ? What does one do in cases like that? I have seen some kids slap their parents, kick the car, destroy something because the parent didn't do what they wanted, like buy something at the store.
So how could one handle that type of behavior?
I in no way am 'spanking' happy. But in that instance .... well, what to do? I've seen so many parents just take it and then wonder why there adult child became so disrespectful.
This would have been a much better way to frame the comment I wrote earlier. Since I myself have never had to spank a child.