Originally Posted by Kirby

It's not like I huddled over him and beat the **** out of him.
I gave him a spanking and sent him to his room.

Has he hit the dog again?
No.
Is he afraid of me or does he feel ill will towards me?
No.

He hit the dog, so I felt it was necessary to hit him back. He didn't like it, so he figures the dog doesn't like it.

Originally Posted by Tore

I would answer that question saying that it's never, at no point in time, okay for my father to slap me. When I have kids, I want to teach them that in our family, we don't slap or otherwise physically punish. I don't want that kind of behaviour to be a tool in our communicative toolbox. I hope that I will be able to instill in my kids a certainty, pride and self-assurance that tells them that if ever another grown-up lay hands on them, they will know that this adult is doing something which is not okay. And eventually as they grow up, I hope they would see in retrospect that I as a father treated them with love as well as the respect that I treat other adults with, even though they were kids.

I remember when I was a kid, we were visited by another family who were friends of my parents. I remember their boy did something which the parents didn't approve of. It was relatively trivial, but he got slapped for it and started crying. This happened at the dinner table and even though I was a kid, I remember I was shocked and horrified. It's never been okay with me and then as well as today, I'm thankful for my parents that they never did that to me.