No problem, I'm sure this isn't exclusively a men's issue anyway, though it probably does affect men and women differently growing up, especially with regard to our relationships with our fathers.

Certainly, children need discipline and guidance and can't just be left to their own devices. They need to be instilled with firm ideas about right and wrong, and proper and improper behavior. But you've got to be very careful about the memories you leave a child with, because the experiences of childhood are the strongest and most lasting. Being struck by a parent, the person a young child trusts most in the world, can only be traumatic. Personally I wonder how anyone DOESN'T grow up with problems from being spanked.