there seems to be 2 very different ideas of what is being discussed here.
beating: flying off the handle, and hitting your kid out of anger. feeling personally offended by the actions of your child and therefore you hit him. feeling like your ego is bruised because you can’t get a little kid to listen to you.
chinuch: giving a light, or not so light, but not especially hard hit on the backside or hand or even lightly on the face (note…lightly) for the SOLE PURPOSE OF CHINUCH! there is no anger whatsoever at all involved. it is done with full concern for the child, and out of love, and a will to make sure the child knows right from wrong.
for those of you who have bad experiences from your childhood, and are emotionally and possibly physically scarred from it, you were subjected to method #1. i am deeply sorry for you. your parents were indeed wrong, and i understand why that would affect your judgment. however your arguments based on that are irrelevant seeing as THAT IS NOT THE SUBJECT OF DEBATE HERE!!!
for those of you who are smiling fondly at your childhoods, and those of you who know that your parents hit you for your own good, you know what i’m talking about. you can attest to the fact that there is nothing wrong with method #2. i was brought up with method #2 and i’m fine and feel no resentment toward my grandfather who hit me. LET’S BE CLEAR HERE. THE TOPIC OF DISCUSSION IS NOT METHOD #1!!! THAT IS CLEARLY ABUSE!!! WE ARE DISCUSSING METHOD #2!!!
now…let’s move on…leave the sob stories from your youth about parents who abused you out of this…we are not discussing reshaim here. we are not discussing abusive menuvalim. so please…stop using them as examples for those who arent.