I really like this thread
first I want to say..
Sara-whoever asks you when you are having kids, tell them "just as soon as you learn to mind your own business"!

2nd- as far as hitting or discipline, I think there is a difference, and some parents let it go till the kid goes too far then they really lose their temper...my parents were good at discipline(aside from the 2 or 3 provoked moments with my mom) there was a certain way we were expected to act. thats it, no room for misunderstanding, thats just the way it was. naps were a fact too, not something to be argued with. mymom would say if you arent tired then just rest. because she needed her quiet time for her sanity! (5 kids in my family) if I was being too loud and my dad was on the phone he would snap his fingers, just to signal me, it was not done mean, there was no hint of getting in trouble, just that I had to tone it down.it was just alot of things like that. I broke a window once, by mistake, and was so scared, that the next day when my mother asked me about it I told her what happend but I was really scared, I told her what happend then asked her will it cost alot to replace? she said no(insurance)
and I was not in trouble as long as I admitted it.(oh good lets do it again haha..j/k)
now, 3rd...Richard you really are a riot, I love your humor!
and to answer your question, no that is not entirely what made me the mean person I am today... it helped b LOL but I had to learn the lesson again as a teen, 16, I mouthed off to my dad, when he was trying to help me with my homework, then walked down the hall, well I did not see my mother, and as I turned the corner, wham! hard slap to the face!"don't you EVER talk to your father like that again" she was right of course.
Ihave 4 older brothers and they got more discipline from my father, but not daddys little girl and being so much younger...can you say B-R-A-T?