I agree with you entirely, I don't think anger is any justification and is perhaps the worst reason for hitting your child. I am not a parent but get exposed to bad parenting a fair bit through my work. I have seen kids that have been hit so many times that the threat or act of violence no longer has any influence on them ( not in a discliplining way anyway ). I think there are much more effective ways to punish someone ( as I'm sure most people interested in this site must have considerable insight into !) the erasing of characters on the video game was inspired, I'm sure that would serve as a much more lasting reminder than a quick slap.