When does breaking secular laws not contravene Torah?

When our children were born we were still living in the UK. We couldn't spank them as the UK laws do not permit corporal punishment. So for our own safety we decided to go along the route of a "time-out pad". (Thinking back, the pad worked just as effective when I recall the amount of tears and screaming involved when it was used.)

We then moved back to South Africa and was able to spank them and out came the wooden spoon. Same amount of tears and screaming followed, but we were then allowed to spank our children.

I do believe that the strict upbringing did develop the best in them as their peers in the UK didn't all turn out very respectful. So punishment for bad behaviour had a good outcome.

So, if we didn't have the opportunity to raise our kids this way, would it have been permitted according to the Bible to still use the rod even when the secular laws are against it?

#spanking #rod #secularlaws