I whap them very lightly; it's fine! Though I don't play stuffed-animal-catch with the kids when the owner is around, because one of his random executive decisions was that catch is dangerous. Apparently you can put somebody's eye out with a beanie baby.

I'm okay with letting the kids act up in class sometimes, but if I let them do it all the time it would get really tiring. My attempts to train them to behave are thus entirely self-interested.