There are ways to productively punish. I believe sometimes kids need consequences--that explaining is not always enough. Certainly hitting is not a productive way to punish. However, as I say that, I remember one time my father slapped me across the face and I was not facing him and I didn't see it coming and the message stuck with me all these years. Don't pick on someone else--don't tease in a mean way, as kids sometimes do. Two years ago I had occasion to apologize to the boy I called a fag. He accepted my apology and told me that he remembered the incident from over 40 years ago like it was yesterday. I believe my father reacted the way he did because he had been picked on as a kid...