Most child development experts agree that physical punishment is ineffective, and only serves to alleviate the anger of the adult, rather than actually teach a lesson. We have a 2 year old and a newborn, and we will not be using any form of physical punishment. With our two year old, we have started time outs, and are using the 1–2-3 Magic system, which seems to work really well and was recommended to us by our pediatrician.