Kelly Clarkson has set off something of a Twitter storm after speaking about her parenting style, mentioning that she occasionally “spanks” her children if they’re misbehaving.

The 35 year old singer last week spoke about being a parent to four children to a Rochester-based radio station 98.9 The Buzz.

“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,” Clarkson said. “My parents spanked me and I did fine in life and I feel fine about it.”

The former winner of ‘American Idol’ has two children – 3 year old daughter River Rose and 1 year old son Remington Alexander – with her husband Brandon Blackstock. She is also stepmother to Blackstock’s son and daughter from his previous marriage.

Kelly ClarksonKelly Clarkson has defended spanking her kids

While she’s fully aware that not everybody agrees with her on the subject, she sees nothing wrong with physical discipline if it is necessary. However, doing it while out in public is obviously difficult.

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“So that’s a tricky thing when you’re out in public, ’cause then people are like, you know, they think that’s wrong or something, but I find nothing wrong with a spanking,” she explained. “I warn her. I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m gonna spank you on your bottom if you don’t stop right now. Like, this is ridiculous.'”

“I’m from the South, y’all, so we get spankings,” she added. “My mom would call the principal if I ever ended up in the principal’s office and give permission for her to spank me… I’m a well-rounded individual with a lot of character, so I think it’s fine.”

Twitter, however, begged to differ. One poster said that spanking is “proven to be detrimental to kids”, while others said that it was simply “wrong” and perpetuates “physical fear tactics”.

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