I believe that she thought that she was doing the right thing and didn't understand the consequences. My father beat me with a razor strop a few times, so I started in on corporal punishment with my first son. I spanked him once when he was about five. He started crying (not surprisingly). I told him to be quiet. He said with some emotion, "How can I be quiet after that," I was so mortified that I never spanked him again as I could not refute that logic. I never touched my second son so hopefully that thread is broken.

In my father's defense and it's not much of a defense his own father was supposedly pretty vicious.