Our Socialist Government in New Zealand has made any form of physical punishment illegal......to the detriment of kid's behaviour.
We were firm believers in a pat on the back for all our kids; often enough, hard enough, and low enough.
My five year old granson knows I can't spank him, and man does he play on it!
He's naughty for the sake of being naughty......the other day he ran through the shrubbery at the super-market car-park stomping on and ripping out everything he could.....and laughing at me when I tried to stop him.
When I finally got him into the car, and out of town, to hell with the do-gooders, I dragged him out of the car and cave him a couple of clips around the backside.
BUT..... if someone had seen me, I would certainly been in trouble with the law. But now he knows he can't push me too far!