I whole heartedly dissagree with that.
From my experience kids do not learn from suffering consequences,they learn much better from things that make them happy & bring joy to them,harsh punishments will only drive a wedge between the parent & the child,continued harsh punishments will drive kids to secrecy & make them more stealthy in their actions,it will also create an air of anomosity & resentment where there should be trust & friendship.
Im at least as old as most adults here & older than many,all us older folk came from a hands on generation where our parents would beat the hell out of us as a teaching tool,in all honesty it didnt teach us shit except how to be much more sneaky & that if we got caught there would be hell to pay,i cant think of one time in my childhood where i stopped & thought about what punishment my parents would inflict on me or a time where their punishment played a role in my decision making process,what i can think of is many,many times where the planning of my little capers reached extreme levels so i would not be caught by them.
We stayed open with our children about everything,we hid nothing from them (including our mj use) & taught them to be good to their family & treat others as they want to be treated,for us having them reflect on their actions & letting them know how what they had done made others feel was the best teaching tool we could have used.
Children should never fear their parents for any reason.