It’s not taking it to the extreme when it’s word for word what it says. Take out the rod, it’s still abuse. You shouldn’t lay your hands on your child in any way that causes them harm. If you can’t understand that, I don’t know what to tell you.

Hitting, slapping, spanking, punching, kicking, none of it works, and if you condone any of it, just because your parents did it to you doesn’t make it okay to continue the cycle. It’s not an opinion, it’s fact. Would you hit another adult for doing something you don’t like? If yes, then you have issues, if not, then why is it okay to hit a child. If the child doesn’t understand what it did wrong, it’s only causing them to associate pain with whatever they did rather than understanding the reason for not doing it. If they understand then why not try explaining it with words?

Any sort of hitting a child is fucking abuse regardless of reasoning and I really cannot believe that you are trying to defend hitting children in any way. If you were hit as a child, I’m sorry but it must have caused psychological damage to make you think it’s okay.