Was this normal, in the 80s?

[sadpapercourtesan]

To hit a child round the head so hard they would see stars/be dizzy/have a headache?

My stepfather did this often, and I know standards have changed (I am vehemently against ALL smacking and have clashed on MN over it before) but when it's your own memories it can be hard to judge what is and isn't, iyswim

The whacking around the head was not the only thing that happened, some of it I know was wrong/illegal, other bits I'm not sure.

Sadly yes in my experience although maybe not seeing stars/headache, i certainly got what my mum fondly called 'a clip round the ear' but was in actual fact the flat of her hand across the side of my head with some force. My mum was pretty busy with her smacks and mostly around the head.

Looking back and since having my own children, Im horrified that she did it with such regularity. There's plenty of things she did that I now see were abuse.

And this was the 90s

Agree with some pp, I wouldn't say it was 'normal' - it never happened to me. I know it did happen in other families though, I remember people talking about it and thinking it was awful but not actually doing anything about it.

More common and acceptable than it is now, but not ok either.

I never got hit on the head, but got a very occasional whack on the bum with a hairbrush when I was deemed to be ‘playing up’ or ‘giving lip’

My Dad would clop is around the head if we were naughty. It was an in the moment thing, he's lose his temper and do it. It was very embarrassing as he would do it in public through the whole of the 80's. I remember thinking it was wrong, but unfortunately/ fortunately I never had bruises from it so who could I tell about it. I also realised quite young that being in care is not something you ideally want. There was a children's home behind our house and it was so run down and nothing in the ground, not a swing or anything. He's also happily tell off other people's children. He had high standards, unfortunate technique in maintaining them. --

I don't agree with what he did, but their are some horribly rude entitled children about these days. I twice now at separate parks, have had girls have come up me pushing my toddler on the swing and said it's their turn. I said she just got on, and one insisted that as she had asked I had to remove my child. I'm a grown adult and I appreciate kids should be confident, but I find them quite intimating. Happened at another park too, they girl said it was their turn and stood so close to me that I couldn't push the swing. This child had a doll so was young and was talking negatively about my child insisting it was her turn I'm not a swing hogger. I don't think hitting is the way forward, but kids do need discipline. I struggle with my son, he's hard to get to do things.

No. Never on the head. My dad never hit me. My mum would smack me really hard up the legs and I can remember her leaving red finger marks - but that was more in the 70s when I was a kid.

Although apparently she's conveniently white washed that from her memory!

I was smacked on the bum. Very rarely.

I do remember the headmaster hitting a boy so hard he flew across the room and knocked a bin over. That would have been late eighties, and it really shocked me. He would be arrested now.