My kids have respect for people too and they've NEVER been hit or even yelled at. Very small kids CAN be spoken to, we have electrical sockets in our house and our littlies don't touch them because as soon as a kid is mobile enough you should have socket guards, stair gates etc and from under a year they understand the word NO, said sternly with strong eye contact. As they grow you can explain why in more detail. We've never had kids poking their fingers into sockets, you guard against accidental scenarios as much as possible surely?
I don't think I would have hit my children even if my father hadn't been the psycho he was to be honest. I really dislike violence and cannot see the logic in it in parenting. My fist wife would have hit our kids had I not stopped her and she used to yell, which distressed me almost as much butmy second has this wonderful manner of quiet authority yet being very laid back at the same time, which kids really thrive with.
The nearest I ever came recently to hitting anyone was a bloke in the street who smacked a little girl ( only the once mind) about 3, right off her feet then hauled her back up and told her to stop crying or he'd give her something to cry about, then belted her again because she couldn't stop crying. That's not parenting, and he'll teach that to her and she'll use it on her own kids like as not.that's my problem with smacking, it normalises something that shouldn't be there at all.