The cognitive dissonance that lets people feel that smacking is good parenting is baffling really. How can you teach a child not to hit if you hit them? To sit on a TV show and refuse to talk about how it could translate in later life just shows the level of denial you have to sustain in order to continue using "tools" like this to discipline children. I don't think people smack out of malice (at least not most of the time), I think it stems from thinking that they should be in control of their children, a master/dog relationship, the Dad actually said they are "training them."
Not teaching them, encouraging them, inspiring them, motivating them, empowering them, equipping them with life skills and building them up into strong, resilient, healthy, happy people. Just training them.
I'm not training kids, I'm raising them. It's not about having parents above keeping them suppressed, it's about having a strong foundation on which to propel them to a magnificent future. I am the roots, I am home. They are the branches reaching upward towards a future beyond my perception.
The Eastern Inspired parents just seemed like pretty standard parents tbh, they dressed it up to seem like more than traditional family values combined with some extra curricular activity, home cookery, games and outdoor time. Like what most people try to achieve, then. I didn't warm to him at all.