I quote from your entry: "Hitting a child is an act of violence. Hitting a child is physical abuse. This is the accurate and honest way to describe what you are doing."

In other words, you are accusing every parent that has ever spanked their child of being a child abuser. Including my sister. I take extreme exception to that.

and after your confession that you can't stop thinking about hitting your child I'm actually pretty worried about their safety

Knowing David as I know him, I'm not. The thinking he can't stop doing is the exact same sort of thinking as I tend to do: "Is doing X the right thing? Is it the wrong thing? Am I a bad person? No, I'm not, but they say that I am ... am I a bad person?"

It's indicative that he cares very deeply about his children, and any suggestion that he might be doing the wrong thing is something he takes in and considers very carefully. He wants to protect them from harm, and the implication that he might be doing them harm is something he takes very seriously indeed. Indications of a good parent, in my mind - but in this case, very much counter productive.

This is an area that is very much subject to shades of gray, as is most of life. To lay down a blanket rule of "This is bad, and must not be done under any circumstances" is to ignore that simple fact.