Re: Is smacking children an effective form of discipline?
Even though I'm not a parent, I've been around kids since I have several young cousins, and I gotta say that I can never see a smacking as being useful. I think kids are very easy to convince.. its like dough you can mould into any shape really. Ofcourse they all have their specific traits like one may be more stubborn than the other, but any reasonable adult should be able to deal with that instead of giving them a smacking.
Also, more often than not, I think the smacking does not come as a way to help the child understand, rather it basically is a result of frustration with the child. I also happen to agree with: Circumstances that lead to a smacking generally result from bad parenting to begin with.
Ofcourse, slightly hitting the hand if they're touching anything dangerous or whatever isn't really beating.