Let me start by saying mom does not think she abused me. For this reason I have issues with the whole "line between abuse and punishment" that people seem to think is obvious. For her it was not.

I was a good kid. I didn't get punished much. I got spankings for peeing my pants well past 8 years old. I held it because I was afraid of spankings, kid logic ya know? I still have bladder issues as an adult because of it. I remember lying about the bruises on my legs from the cut belt they used. But still, it didn't happen much. My brother was another story. He got angry at my parents for hitting him. I remember the screams between him and my mom and she hit him with the belt, and he laughed at her, telling her to hit him harder, it wouldn't do a thing. They would go on for hours. I would try to leave and hide, and if she saw me she would hit me too, because I was running away, like I always did.

I tried to kill myself 3 times by the age of 10. I'm in therapy for PTSD. I only learned what happy was as an emotion well into adulthood. I wasn't hit much. My mom doesn't think she abused me. Abusive people don't think they are bad, or wrong. My mom was a stay at home mom, she homeschooled us and took us to tons of activities and sports, she never touched any substances even alcohol. She was what should have been a great, caring mom.

So while corporeal punishment might be appropriate in the right hands, I think it should be illegal, because abusive people need to be told it's wrong, and children deserve not to go through that. My mom would have still harmed us, emotional I'm sure, but it certainly would have reduced a lot of trauma.