I made a pretty conscious effort to be a very different kind of parent. I stopped at one child haha ha... So that I had the emotional resources to be as present as I could be.
I'm not overly materialistic, we still have more resources then I had growing up though. I do make a point to be more present as presence is the most important thing.
I smacked my daughter once, she was a toddler and ran out in front of a car. I yelled quite sternly too to not run out on the road and she never did it again and I ever smacked her again either.
I'm not a big fan on inflicting childhood trauma though.
I was listening to a show on ABC about smacking kids and a man from Arnhem Land said that he doesn't smack his toddler unless a hungry crocodile is involved lol. I'm not sure if he smacks the toddler or the crocodile or both in such situations.
As to Debates... Haha, yep. My daughter is a lot like me, she questions the point to absolutely every little trivial thing so apparently everything is worthy of a debate
it kind of amuses me as much as it is annoying.
Lol... Classic case of parental karma... Haha (joking).