I was watching Dr. Phil and he said that he believes that it is wrong to hit your child{except a ligh slap in the rear} to correct your child when he is mistaken. He believes anything more than that would cause your child to grow up fearing you, and show contempt for you as he grows older.
It is written: Proverbs 22:15 - Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Proverbs 23:13 - Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Alsoroverbs 29:15 - The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
I had a friend and as a child growing up his mother beat him with piano chords and to this day he still loves his mother dearly and has learned costly lessons. I am not saying to do the same, but a father who loves his son will chasten him. I had another friend as a child nearly drowned to death by stepping into a lake an almost being pulled down by a whirlpool. His father caught him by his hand and slapped the daylights out of him. He soon learned that his father did it out of love as he grew older. The next time he encountered a whirlpool he remembered what his father had done to him last time and refrained.
It is written:And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Hebrews 12:5-8