The reason why im a little against the opinion of the bum tapping was in an example of someone..
Dont be offended, Im only putting this example for food for thought... as I have considered and thought about it too when I think of how im going to discipline my kids.
The couple we know who does bum tapping (spanking... whatever), has kids who are 16 months and almost 3 years old now... which in itself is a hard job with 2 kids so young. They dont take bum tapping seriously though... Its been done a few times to them and it is a joke to the kids now. And they are so young to be like that... Like I said they just run up to their parents when they do something they dont like and slap their bum and say no mummy, no daddy!
And these kids DO NOT listen.
However, you never know... That method may very well work for other people, and you though.
I remember as a kid I used to get sent to the corner... my parents had a yard stick that sat in the corner with me and ?I was told that if I moved before they got me, I would get spanked with the yard stick... for some reason it worked lol. I remember a few times standing in that corner counting the flowers on our wallpaper lol.
That's what has put me off of smacking as well. I have only ever seen bad examples of it; the angry, frustrated mum in the super market, trying to get her shopping done and the kid is constantly messing around and moaning, "Mum I want this, I want this I want it I want it I want it I WANT IT I WWAAAAAAANNNTTTT ITTTTT!!!" And finally she snaps, grabs the child by the arm gets in the kids face, slaps him on the arm leaving a red pimply hand mark and yells, "Well you can't have it so stop whinging!!"
My sisters best mate who had a baby Anna's age would constantly smack him... whenever he did anything 'wrong' but it was so inconsistent, he didn't know what he was doing wrong or why he was being smacked or where his next smack was coming from. It wasn't that she smacked hard, just that she did it in such a way that I couldn't see what the baby was possibly going to learn from that. Just seemed like random smacks to me
The final example I'll give is my sister in law, smacks her child who is now three. She never tells him what he did wrong, though and isn't consistent with her punishment. Sometimes she makes him sit at the table, other times it's okay for him to eat nothing but chocolate and run around the house naked if he doesn't want clothes on, but other times it's "If you won't get dressed you'll get a smack!" or "Do you want my boot up your arse?! Then come and sit at the table!" the poor kid doesn't know what's right or wrong because sometimes it's fine for him to do things and others he gets smacked or threatened with a smack.
I'm by no means saying EVERYONE who smacks smacks like this of course they don't some people use it really well, and it works well for them...
But I have only ever seen it negatively - and all of those kids were badly behaved so it can't work well for them at all! They don't listen to their mum or anyone for that matter they won't even respond when you ask them a simple question.
The other thing is, if smacking is their only form of punishment, how do people who are not the parent enforce order and rules? I know I wouldn't feel comfortable smacking someone else's child - I wouldn't even smack my own! So.... How does anyone else (a teacher, childminder, family baby sitter, grandparent etc) discipline your child or get a positive reaction and good behaviour from them? I don't know because nobody in my family smacks so I don't really know how it works...
I hope nobody is offended by this post - that is not meant to be the case at all - I am just sharing my personal experiences and I know others will vary.