A decade ago I would have derided this statement but now I regard any form of corporal punishment as child abuse. Short-term gain for parents and long-term pain for kids.

You see it with hysterical kids in supermarkets, being whacked. The little devils probably deserved something, but not assault.

Not the clout round the ears or the smack on the back of the legs or the hiding from a stick.

I've seen kids warned by their parent that their misbehaving will result in punishment later, and much later they've forgotten why the parent is belting them.

If I'm encroaching on your "rights" as a parent, consider some of the weird countries which have banned all forms of corporal punishment: Nepal, Peru, Honduras, South Sudan, the Congo, Kenya, Costa Rica, Turkmenistan, Croatia and Bolivia.

Yep, these fringe-dwelling parts of the world are more civilized than we could ever be.

I was once a supporter of "reasonable" physical punishment in the home.

That is until one day when playing beach cricket with the kids, my younger son broke the "rules" and belted the tennis ball out to sea.

The terrified look on his face as I strode towards him broke my heart and completely changed my mind.

At school there were times when I thought the cane would take my hand off. God, it hurt.

The stick or the strap at home always seemed to be out of proportion to what I'd done wrong.

It was usually when dad was tired from a day in the garden or still stressed after a day at work.

I was the whipping boy, literally.

It was an era of spare the rod and spoil the child. When kids should be seen and not heard and as little pigs they had big ears.

It was an era of child humiliation; a disrespectful purge of a child's ability to mature and progress.

You'll find plenty of studies, warning about the mental health impact of constant smacking.

Corporal punishment has been banned in all Australian schools, except private schools in Queensland, although that may have changed.

I think that physical punishment in the home is far worse than it ever was in schools.

Smacking destroys the home as a child's haven.

If the child doesn't feel safe in the home, or doesn't understand why putting a foot wrong warrants a hiding or a clip around the ear, then the child may be growing up in a high-stress environment.

The child continues to love the parents but goes on to model their behavior on the standards set by the parents.

A US study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education suggested that smacking a child at pre-school age or school age is more likely to create anxiety levels and depression disorder.

As a result, the child has greater difficulty engaging positively in schools.

Ok, it's a study. But you can bet most kids remember every detail of the hiding mum or dad inflicted on them.

I remember every time I was smacked, at home and at school. I can offer a blow-by-blow account.

I can't remember dates but I can relate to everything else.

My pre-school age reaction was to regard school or home a battlefield.

If I put a foot wrong I had to watch dad to determine how this would end.

Fear, anxiety, anger, and he was hardly an abusive father.

He just did what dad's did then. It was part of parenting.

I was at a social event recently and a child was misbehaving. So the father took the child behind the vehicles at the park and suddenly a hysterical scream brought the event to a momentary pause.

We pressed on with the event and the child soon got over it. I wanted to lock up the father, I was so angry.

What a cheap shot. What a cop-out.

What a catastrophic dumbing down of what a parent stands for. What an utter betrayal of a child's faith in the family.

Yes, I could be reasonable about this and suggest that a short, sharp smack is an effective form of discipline.

But I've seen angry parents lay into their kids.

I've seen a child sob and sob for what seemed like ages, from being assaulted and humiliated by a parent.

I've seen a father lay into the wife and their young son because the father was drunk.

I don't trust parents.

Corporal punishment reflects far more on the parents than it ever would on a child.

The next time you go to smack one of the kids, just pause for a second and assess what's going on here.

For a moment, think of how proud you are of your kids, and then wonder how on earth belting them could possibly reflect that.