I don't have children, but I worked for a women with children substance abuse program, learned a structured parenting curriculum, and taught it to my clients.

We always taught to pretty much *never* spank your children. It's usually ineffective (as a long-term strategy), there are studies that suggest that spanking kids actually *causes* behavioral problems as an adult, it causes your children to fear you, which may cause emotional trauma, and it makes them more susceptible to falling victim to domestic violence.

Of course, there's also the adage that's so-often seen on social media of: "If they're old enough to understand reason, you should reason with them instead of hitting them. If they're not old enough to understand reason, they're not old enough to understand why you're hitting them." Which is absolutely true.

But the exception that I always taught to my clients was physical danger. If you gotta smack an infant's hand to stop them from touching a hot stove, do it. If you spank a child when they've about ran in front of a car to teach them that their behavior is dangerous, do it.

The above point about it causing your children to fear you? ^ That's the benefit of spanking/smacking a hand in dangerous situations. Those are situations you *want* them to be fearful of.