It started with Koala Yummies.

Back when those delicious cookie snacks were all the rage, I was a Koala Yummy fiend. Sure, Dunkaroos were also nice, but nothing beat the original Australian mammal-shaped treat.

Like the little 5-year-old cherub I was, I fluttered over to my mom in the grocery store and politely requested that she grace my lunchbox with the cocoa crunchy bite-sized delicacies. She replied I ate too many sweets, as she put them back high on the shelf.

She pushed the cart further down the aisle. I remained stationary.

"But MooooooooooommmmmMMM," I whined. Bad choice — Mom hated whining.

"No, and that's it." she scolded. "Don't make a scene."

Not to be defeated, I grabbed another box and placed it inconspicuously in the cart while Mom was reading the soup labels. Not discreetly enough, though, because she caught me and coolly told me I was in trouble. I yelled. She stared. I stomped my feet and crossed my arms. She pointed sternly. I kicked a shelf. She slapped my face.

By then, you'd have thought she cut my arms and legs off by the ruckus I was causing. She abandoned the cart and carried me kicking and screaming to the car.

I was a brat, but was my mom a bad mother for hitting me?

Milwaukee First District Alderman Ashanti Hamilton is facing felony child abuse charges after allegedly beating his 6-year-old daughter with a hanger, even drawing some blood from her leg. He was ordered by a judge on Tuesday to have no contact with his two children or his ex-wife.

Clearly that's bad — bad parenting, bad morals, bad problem solving. Not exactly assault with a deadly weapon, but violent and senseless all the same. He shouldn't be allowed to be near his kids right now, not after endangering one of them.

But how many of us got the belt as a kid? I remember my dad telling me he used to get the belt, and I was threatened with it a few times, but I don't think it was ever used on me. Are parents who have used it unfit to care for their kids? Are they felons needing justice to be brought on them?

My parents and grandparents were hit by nuns. Sometimes their stories are funny, but sometimes they tell those stories without the slightest showing of mirth. Fear of God, indeed.

It's wrong to hurt children. It's as simple as that, and it doesn't take scientific data to prove it. Is it inhuman? Not really. But it is serving only our baser instincts, not helping us to truly solve the problem of an unruly child. Sure, reason is slow and sometimes even futile when it comes to kids' tantrums, but we grown-ups are guardians of children because we can reason, even though they can't.

I've dealt with impish toddlers before, and I know how helpless you can feel when they throw a fit. But the way for them to change that behavior is to teach them how to communicate and negotiate with adults and to show them that they might be able to work to earn what they want.

I knew as a child that I felt completely powerless. In hindsight, I see that I was, as are all children, because parents rightly have all the power. But I didn't understand that reality as a kid, and it would have helped a whole lot if I'd felt like I was working to make progress toward my goal. Instead of denying me Koala Yummies, by saying it's because I eat too many already, give me some power by saying that I need to eat less junk food, and if I am able to cut down, I'll be rewarded with them. It's not an instant fix, it's a long-term strategy, and it helps keep kids from seeing you as the enemy blocking them from their desires.

Parents who spank are not usually child abusers, but they'd kick themselves if they knew how much harder they make raising their children.