A woman who helped launch a campaign to stop people hitting children admitted: "I have smacked my kids."

Bridget Langford, NSPCC manager in Sussex, said: "I felt awful afterwards."

Bridget, helping with today's annual NSPCC Children's Day, said her feelings of guilt were mirrored in findings from a survey of parents.

It revealed hitting children left most parents feeling bad and apologetic, more than three-quarters felt upset afterwards and four in ten admitted to being tearful.

The NSPCC commissioned the survey of almost 1,600 UK parents as part of its new Hitting Children Must Stop. FULL STOP campaign, which is calling for children to have the same legal protection against being hit as adults.

Bridget, based in Crawley, said parents found hitting never did any good and it made them feel dreadful.

She said: "I smacked my children once when one ran into a road. I felt awful afterwards.

"Children and parents remember those moments for the rest of their lives."

She said good parenting skills in recent years had led to a reduction in smacking but everyone who became a parent should make a commitment not to smack.

"We all understand the frustrations parents feel sometimes but practice walking away, counting to ten or going away and making a cup of tea.

"We teach our children not to hurt others so why should we give them mixed messages by smacking them?"

The NSPCC's campaign is the UK's first large-scale education drive on the issue.

The society's survey showed that more than two thirds of parents who have physically punished their children apologised afterwards.

Six in ten parents say that physical punishment is the wrong way to discipline children.

To help parents discipline their children without hitting them, the NSPCC is launching a 28-page booklet, Encouraging Better Behaviour: A Practical Guide To Positive Parenting'.

The NSPCC, whose campaign is being backed by celebrities including film director Lord Puttnam and actress Jerry Hall, is also calling on the Government for greater investment in family support services.

The booklet is available at www.nspcc.org.uk or by sending a stamped addressed A5 envelope to NSPCC publications, Weston House, 42 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH.