Why does the question start with SHOULD? Of course you shouldn't lol.

However, if you feel like it's a necessary disciplinary method for your child, then by all means go ahead, as long as it's legal in your country. Your kids might not accept at a later age that you punished them with illegal means when they were little. Using a belt or something else seems pretty stupid and unnecessary.

Here's some thoughts for those of you who don't have kids yet:

Giving a light spanking as a last resort punishment works pretty well on small kids. I used to spank my first born (Annie) fairly regularly and she responded well. She never thought that I was wrong to hit her, because she always knew what she had done was wrong.

At some point she started to understand that spanking doesn't really hurt that much (when I do it at least). When she was three, she came to me and said "Daddy, could you give me a spanking, I quite like it actually." I agreed, but just as I was about to hit her, she said that she changed her mind and I of course let her go. After that I never spanked her again.

I have since found a far superior punishment. I have a sauna at home that's always ready to use - this is our "correctional facility" and it works beautifully. It's of course possible to inflict any amount of pain by simply throwing water on the stove, but the cool thing is that you never need to, it's all completely psychological. You only need to raise the temperature slightly above comfort level and they will start crying out of fear for more heat (because they have no control).

In fact they fear the sauna so much that only dragging them into the room and on the bench will make them cry so hard that it's punishment enough. If they promise not to do whatever they have done again, I will let them go the first time. If they break their promise they have to face the heat, quite literally. Doesn't happen often though.

Annie is now five and she has recently started to really like being in the sauna, so it doesn't quite work for her as punishment anymore. I could of course raise the temp really high, but so far she hasn't done anything to deserve that. Serious talks have been enough.

Always make sure your kids know what they have done is wrong. Never punish your kids unless you're sure they do. A child shouldn't be punished for breaking something by mistake, for instance. Also think about the fact that a child can easily forget the rules in the middle of play, which should have some weight in court.

Obviously never hit your children because you are mad at them. In fact you should never be mad at your children, being angry is just the frustration of not understanding why your children behave like they do.