As a mom, I came quite late to spanking. I raised my kids in a small Midwest town in the US during the late 90s, and attitudes to parenting were definitely changing. Sure, quite a few kids still got their bottoms warmed occasionally, but very few people in my close circle of friends used corporal punishment. I myself looked down on the practice, I must admit. I felt it was a symptom of failure as a parent.
That all changed one day, when I took all three of my girls over my knee for the first time. As I say, this was fairly late in their upbringing – the eldest was nine, the middle one seven and my littlest was just four years old.