Do you have children Dan? In this case I think I would have failed if I had not spanked my son.<p>The reason why spanking is so effective is it ties the action and punishment very close together. Children get pretty used to you yelling at them to stop doing something they want to do, so when they do something really dangerous you need to have someway of getting across to them that whatever they have done should never be done again. Spanking is a tool that should be rarely used, but I have no issue with being used in the appropriate situation.