I don't know what everyone else's parents where up to, but I always found most people definition of spanking too broad. I was spanked as a kid as were my siblings, and I found quite effective. Let me be clear, it was always on the bare bum with a bare hand, never more than two swats (the number matched the severity of the crime), always as the cap for discipline, and it always, always, always, came with an explination about what we did, why it was wrong, and how it correlates our punishment. Outside of the very immediate, I never resented my parents, and I never looked at them with fear, because they instilled in me early that my actions had consequences.