Kelly Clarkson just admitted something most parents don't

Much-loved singer Kelly Clarkson receives her fair share of heat when it comes to her parenting choices—her daughter's breakfast of Nutella on toast last April raised the hackles of some sancta-parents—but her latest admission is a bit more controversial.

In an interview with Radio.com, the mom-of-two opened up about one of her discipline tactic: spanking. Chalking it up to following the example set by the way she was raised, Kelly—who is mom to River Rose (3) and Remington Alexander (1)—admitted "I'm not above a spanking, which people aren't necessarily into. And I don't mean like hitting her hard, I just mean a spanking. My parents spanked me, I did fine in life, and I feel fine about it. But I do that as well, too."

 Kelly mentioned that she always warns River before resorting to hand-to-bottom.  "I'm like, 'Hi, I'm gonna spank you on your bottom if you don't stop right now. Like, this is ridiculous.'"

The singer is relatively reluctant to spank in public, since she knows that public opinion on the practice is... mixed to say the least.

Of course, there's plenty of recent evidence that in fact, spanking can be a harmful practice, potentially leading to children who use violence themselves, in relationships later on  as well as things like mental disorders. In one recent study, young adults who reported having received the most physical punishment as children were more likely to have recently committed dating violence—even when researchers controlled for things like age, sex, ethnicity, parental education and whether or not there was child abuse in the home.

Experts have found that most parents spank their kids in the heat of the moment, afterwards often feel guilty about doing so. And usually that spanking backfires on them. Kids who are spanked continue to misbehave in both the short and long-term, which is the opposite of what parents wanted when they used this discipline tactic.

So far, 50 countries have banned spanking and while it's currently legal in Canada, the Liberal government has said they plan to remove section 43 of the Criminal Code, which allows parents and teachers to use reasonable physical force to discipline children

Read more:
Is yelling at your kids as bad as spanking?
Is there such a thing as "smart" spanking?