As a little boy, I was taken across the lap by my governess quite often and smacked on the bare bottom. I had ambivalent feelings about such punishments. Obviously they made my bottom smart but I did like to be held on her soft thighs and it was a kind of maternal act.
Later, my grandmother introduced a light cane for my punishment, as I was a bigger boy already and she believed in the traditional way of discipline, at least in principle.