Grandma, mother and aunt(s) used to make me go out to the bush outside our house, get a switch, and make me come back and whip my ass with it......
AND YOU BED'NOT COME BACK WITH SOME LITTLE TWIG!!! .............
I can in all seriousness say that every whipping I got, I deserved. I mean, what else are you supposed to do when an 8-year-old sets fire to an overgrown lot and pushes his little brother down a flight of stairs on a Big Wheel??? Once, when I was getting my hair cut at the age of 10, I commented that I'd like to get my hair cut in a different style. Mom said, 'When you pay for your own haircuts, you can get any style you want.' Me, being a smart-ass, came back with, 'Can I borrow $10?' Next thing I know, I'm on the floor of the barber shop and the barber is laughing his ass off.
Would I whip my kids? It'd take an EXTREME circumstance for me to even consider it, but in the back of my mind is 'If I don't do it, the streets will.....and they don't care about him/her like I do.'
Can a child be disciplined without it? Absolutely, but each child isn't the same and won't respond equally to the same disciplinary measures.
This, of course, is my opinion. Yours may differ.