What's your opinion on physical punishment for kids

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We would give out children a choice of three swats on the hand with a wooden paint stirrer (low mass) or five minutes sitting on a chair. They always selected the three swats ( I suppose because it was over the quickest.)

It helps to see children not as objects upon which to vent anger, but as that which needs correction and instruction. Parenting will be frustrating unless one abandons one's responsibility to instruct and correct. Generally by age 10 (approximately) the child should have a greater ability to take correction verbally.

it didn't work for me.

My father hit me as a kid. It didn't make me tough. It made me angry, scared, confused, nervous, resentful.

OP, if you think your beatings were beneficial, then go ahead and physically punish your kids. (They say it's cyclical.) If you have reservations, then think again.

If you're uncertain of something, don't do it. You seem uncertain.

Any kind of physical violence against children, including spanking, was forbidden by law in Sweden 1966.
As I said earlier, the parents sets the limits. If you never raise your voice against your child, unless the child has misbehaved, raising your voice will be as effective (if not more) as spanking it.
By all means, if it's legal in your country, spank away. But be aware of that you're planting a seed that says "it is ok for a stronger person to beat a weaker one".

/Mats

I've made up my mind. The world has enough violence as it is, and I dont want to contribute to a cycle of violence. I never want to hit or use physical violence to teach kids right from wrong. I hope dialogue, non-violent punishment, and teaching will be the tutor for growth and learning.

My mind is made up that physical violence has no place in my repertoire

I spanked my daughter once when she was a toddler, to get her attention at something dangerous. She wasn't old enough to understand language. It was an impulse and I hadn't planned on it. I didn't spank her hard, just enough to redirect her. Regardless I have never forgiven myself.

I don't think it's OK for children to associate pain / dominance / control with their closest relationships.

Kids these days are brought up to be snowflakes, so smacking them is no longer allowed. Kids know this and they take advantage of it. That's why they behave bratty in supermarkets.

If a child does something naughty, the best thing for them in the long run is to smack them. Not hard enough to cause pain but enough to make them understand that they did wrong. It's called discipline. I was smacked as a child and I thank my parents for it now.

I was watching an episode of Supernanny once where a 5-year-old girl was misbehaving, and Supernanny's only way to resolve it was to sit the kid on the naughty step. While the mother was dealing with the baby, it was on the father to deal with the 5-year-old, and this kid was having a tantrum just when he had got home from a hard day's work and just wanted to eat his dinner. She got away from the naughty step multiple times and he had to keep getting up to put her back. It took about an hour and a half, and by then his remaining dinner had gone cold and he had indigestion and fatigue. All the kid really needed was a smack on the bottom and sending upstairs to her bedroom. But because smacking is no longer allowed, they had to discipline the kid the hard way.

My father used to have a system of corporal punishments. It was super-predictable, well-defined and relatively adequate. It didn't leave any trauma on me.
My mother used emotional blackmail and conditional love. It was traumatizing.

I don't think physicality of corporal punishments is the real problem.

My parents weren't strict, but if I was being naughty I would get a smack and sent up to my room. It hasn't traumatized me. Like most children, I just accepted it as something adults did as a way of being in charge.

There is a difference between physically abusing a child and just smacking a child. And usually a child (particularly an NT child) will know that, even if they cry after being smacked. I think it teaches children discipline and also to know that bad behaviour has consequences, and smacking is usually the best punishment a child can actually take seriously.

When I was in high school it got to a point where teachers weren't even allowed to touch children. Some of the naughty kids took advantage of that and would misbehave in classes so bad that they'd send the teacher out crying in frustration. The kids would stand on the desks and mess about, and there was nothing the teacher could do. Yes I know there were bad kids in the days schools used the cane, but I think kids these days are even more out of control, in packs, and they know they can get away with murder. That actually spoilt the rest of the children's learning. I think the teachers should at least be able to touch the children, like pull them by their arm to their desk.

This reminds me of a cartoon drawing I saw on the internet earlier. It consisted of two pictures; one was 1968 and the other was 2018. The 1968 one was of parents yelling at their kid for getting low grades. The 2018 one was of parents yelling at the teacher because their kid got low grades.

All evidence for smacking your child is good seems to be anecdotal.
For anecdotal evidence, I turned out ok without being smacked, my brother turned out ok. AFAIK all my classmates turned out ok.
The whole population of my country mostly ended up being ok without having been smacked.
I don't really buy the argument "I wasn't traumatized, so therefore it must be harmless".
I have raised children from 0 to 7 yo, not the same child, but I've been through all the stages.
And I see no reason for any kind of violence, mild or hard, my experience says it's enough to raise your voice if you don't usually do that to get the same effect, if not a more prominant one.
It was especially obvious when I was taking care of a 6-7 yo whose father "had to" smack her to keep her in place. I only needed to look at her sideways to get (an even) better effect.
Again, if you hit your child you plant a seed that it's ok for a stronger person to hit a weaker one.
And as a standup comedian put it, if you can't win an argument with a 5 years old, you need to work on your arguing technique.

/Mats

I can see why children who has been treated like that will be unresponsive to other punishments while in school, that is not an argument for physical punishment as I see it.

/Mats