No, my friend, that was discipline. From the way it sounds, you didn't fill him with terror. You merely told him why you were spanking him, spanked him, and backed it up with further punishment. Sounds like you're a pretty good parent.
As I repped Mr. Tuffmen, I feel that was completely reasonable. Clearly that kid felt any punishment he received was well worth his dickish behavior. So reaching into a new (old) bag of tricks was more than reasonable. It was not beating, it was fairly administered punishment to let a kid know that he fucked up. I say no flag on the play.
Needed his ass beat. You handled it well. He was afraid it meant you didn't love him. You fixed that. You're doing great.
Wow. Overwhelmingly positive response. Thank you all. It must have been bothering me more than I thought because I feel a lot better about it.
While I agree what you did isn't even close to the main topic that was being discussed here, the above stuck out from your post. Do you think if you didn't spank him and instead just followed through with a stern talk and telling him that he was losing his time with you that evening, you would have gotten the same result? Was spanking him the catalyst for his follow up behavior or do you think you could have achieved the same reaction without having to go that route?
There are times where reasoning and explaining yourself is appropriate and there are times where a quick swat on the ass is required. And if you have to hit a kid more than once, there are larger problems at hand. And it's not the severity of the punishment, it's the swiftness with which it is handed down. A quick pop sends a message that there is no gray area there, whatever just happened will not be tolerated. I would go so far as to say that denying him the special time is far worse that the quick swat on the ass. That special one on one time should never be used as a reward or punishment. It just is. If he wants to continue being an ass during that time, then you can get up and say good night and walk away, but you shouldn't purposely deny him that time. Trust me, it's not going to last forever and you will beg to have those moments back once they are gone.