My own hot take is that hitting children is lazy parenting. You don’t want to do the work required to regulate your own emotions, reason with them, and find alternatives for effective discipline. Carrying a cane to inflict pain because, “that would teach them to behave” just feels so much easier. And if you really took some time to introspect, you’d realize that’s what it is. Can children be overwhelming? Yes. Can parenting be frustrating? Yes! (I’ve worked with kids and helped raised kids within my community, it’s hard work! There’s no disputing that). But at the end of the day, they’re childreeennn! If at your big adult age, you still misbehave, struggle to get things right, make mistakes, get upset, throw tantrums, “snap” when you’re overwhelmed, how much more CHILDRENNNNN! The problem is we automatically view them as stubborn, as they know exactly what they’re doing but are being willfully errant. And maybe, sometimes, that’s the case. But you also have to consider that they’re over stimulated, they’re overwhelmed. They’re confused. They’re sad. Upset, temperamental, hurt, insecure, etc. And they don’t have effective tools yet for dealing with all of these emotions without acting out. Yes, kids need discipline, but your only or most common form of discipline cannot be beating. You shouldn’t even be hitting children at all. All the beating you received, what did it do but instil fear in you? Sometimes, hatred. Sometimes, a sense of worthlessness and brokenness. Sometimes, silence. Sometimes, a reinforcement of the very behaviour you were beaten for. Think back carefully to all the times you were beaten as a kid for a behaviour, was it the beating that made you change that behaviour (if you did), or was it fear and pain? Is that what you want to teach your kids? Especially if that behaviour can be corrected through other means of discipline that won’t leave them emotionally and physically scarred? Hian.