I was raised in what I (and I believe anyone) would classify as an abusive household both physically and emotionally. Do I hit my children? No. Do I think I would have been better off if I had not been hit? Yes.
I think part of the problem with children being impossible twats nowadays stems from two things:
A) Parents who spank their children so much that they become desensitized to it
B) Parents who use ineffective forms of non-physical punishment which belittle and demean the children instead of teaching them in more uplifting, respectful and supportive ways
I can't believe how many times I have been out and heard a parent speak disrespectfully to their child. Name-calling, belittling, emotionally manipulating; all of these things are seen by some parents as "better" than spanking the child, but they can be just as harmful.
I will admit, I used to spank my children. Their father still hits them. I stopped spanking when I realized that they were viscerally afraid of being spanked in a way that made me uncomfortable. I have not hit them in years, but when they think they are in trouble they still react in a frightened way, recoiling and asking if they're going to be spanked. I think part of this is because their father and several people on his side of the family still hit them. Once, after my stepmother had been babysitting the girls for a day, I came home to find that my older daughter had been spanked. She cried when she told me about it, and explained that she felt betrayed because I had left her with someone that would hit her. That, my friends, is a horrible feeling as a parent.
Hitting my children does not teach them that what they did was wrong. It makes them feel hurt, helpless and abused. I don't want my children to feel that way ever, and that is not how valuable lessons are taught.
If I tell them that I am disappointed in them, the reaction is frankly amazing. They absolutely hate disappointing me. I save it for very rare occasions, because it gets the point across so clearly and when I have gotten to the point of stating my disappointment, they are very motivated to figure out what they need to do to make things right.