Fifth Friday: The spanking issue

This week I want to talk about spanking.
Wednesday I read all these gossip about Kate from "Jon & Kate plus 8" spanking one of her little girls (Leah) in public. Which got me thinking about spanking.
From my own experience my mom doesn't believe in punishment, she believes in incentives and in talking (and shouting) in order to correct bad behavior. My dad is a different story. I don't really want to talk about my dad since I am still working through issues I have with him. He never spanked me to discipline me though I can say that much.
In the two years I've been a parent I have never spanked my child and the thought to do so has never crossed my mind.
My perspective on spanking is that it's wrong. I believe the only thing you will teach your child by spanking it is to fear you and that it is OK to hit. How can you say your child is wrong when they hit someone else if you yourself hit them?
My mom has this saying that goes a little something like: When you run out of words then you resort to your fists. Basically if you are to stupid to use your words to get your opinions across then you will use your fists to do so. If your child breaks the rules or disobeys you then you need to be able to explain to your child why they should not have done what they did or why they need to listen to you.
I had a friend one with whom I had this discussion about spanking and she told me that sometimes your child is too young to understand so a slap on the wrist will teach them not to do something again. This might be true. And as a mother of a 2 year old I do understand that it's frustrating to tell your child over and over again not to touch the trash can and maybe a slap would be faster, but to me it's not worth it.

The bottom line for me is that I don't want to teach my child to hit.

If you want other opinions on this issue you can visit Babble, they have compiled different opinions on the subject.