I would pay money to see those people remove their kids from the scene. Can't behave properly in a movie? You don't get to see the movie! Can't behave properly in the grocery store? We're leaving without your favorite cereal! I'm with you as far as parents needing to step up to the plate and not let their kids run…

I've heard of that idea before from pro-spanking parents—I think the philosophy behind it is that if you spank only in a sudden moment of anger, then your kids will start to consider physical violence an appropriate response to anger; whereas if you do what you're suggesting, they'll regard it as a considered…

Based on this, though, you have no idea how the shopping mom handled disciplining her kid after they left the store. I can tell you that I certainly wouldn't have gotten away with that kind of backtalk, but I can also tell you that my parents wouldn't have made a big show of disciplining me in front of random…

Honestly, the small handful of legitimate reasons I can think of to spank a child are almost all things that happen in public. My thought tends to be that the only reason to spank is if the child won't acknowledge some immediate physical danger that could do damage that far outweighs the potential psychological damage…