That is abuse period. Slapping, knocking around, spanking...whatever is being done... there is no excuse for it when a child is "just in my way". I see many angry parents doing this to children without even thinking about it. My guess is they were treated exactly the same way as children.

My personal take on spanking... only when appropriate. In my home, we "spatted" a childs hand if they were about to get hurt, do damage, or hurt someone else and only if several firm NOs were not heeded. The only hard spanking I ever got was for smart mouthing off to my mom and dad. Same with my two sons, they only got a harder spanking with a paddle because of back talking me or their dad... each tried it at ages 6 and 10. edited to add that it was never hard enough to leave bruising... that was never acceptable..just hard enough to get their attention.

Now my brothers were a different story...they challenged my folks at every turn with smoking, back talking, and attempted underage drinking. Thankfully they learned by the time they were 16. Today, one has two girls he never spanks, but occasionally should! One has two boys and lets say he's getting payback... he does spank, but more often just grounds them from sports and the horses...which just about kills the boys to do.

SO I voted that spanking has its place only when appropriate...just use common sense and know your child.