That long argument reminded me of the movie, "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut". Can you guess how?I'm against the idea of striking someone with something entirely. Especially to the younger children. Minds are very impressionable at that age And usually aggressive behavior or punishment of that nature teaches and imprints on children at an early age that the only way to resolve a trouble maker is to beat them to submission, thus further invoking a sharp increase in aggression and stress. People can be sorted out mentally a lot more effectively, it's just no one has the patience to do this properly and try to resolve the issue in a way they think is faster by paddling them.
I believe the only reason why we even have people today thinking paddling is the right thing is because our previous generations were brought up to think that... And that our current generation is on the fence at this point. We're just plain up becoming smarter as a species and we're finding socially and psychologically more effective methods. We're getting too smart for paddling and eventually, it will be done away with by our future generation. (So long as ours doesn't go into some massive paddling spree on our kids for the next 5 to 10 years anyway...)
People do stupid stuff, but we don't try to humiliate and hurt them unless we're plainly out to cause mental damage and further fuel the next offense they make -- whether we realize that or not. That's all paddling does anymore is turn people into aggressive bullies. We need to be less authoritarian and more empathic to what's on our kid's minds. To those who think kids are too simple minded to be capable of premeditated things we forbid them to do, think again. There's always an explanation for everything. Whether it be curiosity (Wandering where they shouldn't.), creativity (Writing on the walls.), desire for attention (Hitting someone or crying and carrying on.), or vengeance. (IE little Bobby pushed little Susan in the dirt cause she called him a dummy.) They're also capable of being stressed very easily and will do things they shouldn't in the midst of this mood.
If it's honestly boiled down to you as a parent needing to paddle a kid, you've effectively screwed up somewhere cause if you find yourself implementing corporal punishment when a simple sit-down as failed you, you need help with parenting the child. Perhaps you should re-evaluate how you teach your child right from wrong, introduce consequences of a less-than physical nature that gets the point across without genuinely altering the child's thinking ability, and try to fix things verbally. You kid will thank you greatly later for it, trust me.
But more over on the FOCUS of the subject, I wouldn't want some person I hardly know beating my child across the seat with a wooden paddle. Based on how I was raised, that's considered primitive and cruel.
