My father was raised Jehovah's Witness (not sure it has anything to do with it) and did not believe in hitting/spanking. Nor did my nana (his mother) but she would chase a mo fo down with a broom.

My mum on the other hand did spank (with a wooden spoon), but I had to have done something really bad. On only two occasions did I receive a serious beatdown - once when I threw my first (and only!) temper tantrum and another when my father bet me a dollar I wouldn't whack her across the ass with a wiffle ball bat (c'mon! A WHOLE DOLLAR!!!). My mum came from a different culture. She was whooped at home AND at school. Her father's father was even more violent to his kids.

I'm still on the fence with spanking. I think some situations call for a whack on the butt. The problem nowadays is there's no middle ground. People are either insanely violent towards their kids or overly passive to where the kids run amok and put themselves and others in danger. BUT, and this has been proven with a lot of the mamas here, true discipline trumps beatings. It just takes the patience and hard work that a lot of parents are too lazy to dish out (i.e. asking your waitress to put your kids in their place).