Kelly Clarkson Defends Spanking Her Kids: 'I Find Nothing Wrong With Spanking'

“I don’t mean hitting her hard,” Clarkson said in an interview with New York’s 98.9 The Buzz radio station. “I just mean a little spanking.”

While the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages spanking or “other physical punishments” as disciplinary methods, Clarkson found otherwise in her own experience growing up. "My parents spanked me and I did fine in life. I feel fine about it, and I do that as well."

She also noted that disciplining in the presence of others is especially difficult, since the method is controversial: "That's a tricky thing, when you're out in public, because then people are like--they think that's wrong or something, but I find nothing wrong with a spanking."

"I warn her," the American Idol star explained, speaking in particular of her oldest child. "I'm like, 'Hi, I'm going to spank you on your bottom if you don't stop right now, this is ridiculous,' and honestly it's really helped. She doesn't do that kind of stuff as often."

Clarkson has two children, 3-year-old River Rose and 1-year-old Remington Alexander.