I can only remember like two spankings as a child from my dad, one was a smack, one was a belt (both were deserved). His way was to warn you, then start taking his belt off, and the sound of the belt going through the loops was enough to stop you from whatever you were doing. I can *never* remember my mother spanking me, but whenever we acted up in public, she had the "killer snap". Snapped her fingers twice, and then came around & pointed at you. Whatever you were doing, you stopped, because you knew that meant you'd get in trouble the moment you left. Now the problem is... when I think back, I can't remember what that trouble would be. I just knew I'd be in trouble. And it never failed to stop me from acting up in public (or at home). To this day I ask her how she did that, and she said she'll only tell me if I ever have kids of my own.
This. Sure, my father was strained past reasonable a couple of times*, but my mind cooked up far worse punishments than he gave me. Spanking was generally the worst of it. But the threat was always there. I don't really remember myself being a rowdy kid anyways - I was pretty quiet and always had my nose in a book, so I don't know what the reason was. Probably fighting with my brother. *Generally he would go overboard while driving. He would reach around and dig his nails into my thigh with one hand while swerving with the other. This generally scared my mother enough to make him stop. The fact that I had recurring nightmares of my father killing me may or may not be related. None in a year or two, thankfully.