I posted this somewhere else but it's relavent: My 40 year old neighbors are of the new hands off approach and it's never OK to raise your voice or hand to a child. They threated but never follow through with "time out".
Last Sunday we had company for dinner when we heard this blood curdling scream coming from next door. The guy and I looked at each other and it went off again.
Both husband and wife neighbors are Veternarians and fix up dogs for fun. They have a rebuilt pitbull; I really thought the pit was yawing on some kid. Bounding out the back door I called over the fence, no answer; I go into the fenced yard as Mom comes out of the kitchen. She smiles sweetly, shaking her dishrag toward the 7 year old girl who is standing on the hood of the car wailing one out. "She's having her little fit".
"Jesus Christ lady, you're scaring the crap outta me! I have guests and we thought someone was getting killed".
I left and haven't heard a peep out of them since.
Their approach is to put your arm around the offending child and reason with them. They carry on for two or three paragraphs of verbage, but the kid is already glazed over and forgotten what exactly he/she did.
I'm not advocating corporal punishment, but you have to get their attention.
First.