My kids are grown and married now. We spanked both of them early. I never used my hand. At a young age we used a fly swatter. Then moved on to a belt. Once they get older, it’s more about them understanding their mistake, acknowledging it, and turning from it. And then apologizing for it and moving on. We still gave them consequences, but those consequences we tried to copy real life consequences. Losing a privilege usually. We screwed it up a lot. I had to apologize to my kids a lot. Especially my son. But they both turned out pretty good.