I was, though not consistently and as such I grew up kind of spoiled. See my dad was always the guy to hand out punishment, so from the age of 6 to 12 I guess you could say I feared and respected my dad for the authority he commanded in the house. I didn't dare pull anything if I knew he was home.
On the other hand my mother is quite a softie. She'd never confront me when I'd done wrong and even when she did it wasn't severe. So I knew if my dad wasn't in I could get away with murder.
I reckon this constant back and forth between the two is probably what encouraged my very nihilistic teenage years, a time when I respected no-one and authority was a source of fun rather than cause for worry. It wasn't until I got older that I began to understand that things aren't as black and white as punish or mollycoddle.
Answer To The Question
I think the times when my dad would hit me made me a stronger person. It was my first understanding of authority, even if it was through fear. Looking back it kept me from doing stupid things, like hanging out the bathroom window and sneaking out of a hole in the fence out in our back garden. Needless to say I never did either again.
Blitzwing said:
One Internet poll isn?t going to prove that hitting a child works.
It's not an attempt to do that at all. If you read the OP:
"This is to quash a claim on another thread that anecdotes from people who were spanked aren't proof it works and another person questioned when opinion becomes survey data?"
It's just to combat a point I believe you yourself made. I believe the majority will be on behalf of this community.