Did all parents hit their kids in the 1970s?

[Polythene]

I often hear that this was the norm. But was it, really?

Yep. A "good hiding" was the expected result of any misbehaviour.

Yes , and I was slapped around the face , hit by my Dad.
Mum would give us a tap on the hand , not very often.
Also we were sent to bed without dinner and not allowed out of our bedroom if we had done something minor.
Was locked out of the house at night for covering up for a sibling to spare them a beating.I was 11 , siblings were younger.So all of us had to stay outside as Dad didn't believe me .

Teachers gave the slipper or came or would slam desk lids on your hand or have a blackboard wooden rubber thrown at your head.

With a guitar???
Didn't it break the guitar?

I was a child in the 80s and was smacked of naughty - I think fairly regularly by my mum as I remember but doesn’t stand out like the only a few occasions by my dad (he’s generally a very calm man) - I think it was still pretty normal to early 90s as I remember going to a gymnastics class with a handprint on my thigh where I’d been smacked and the coach just laughing at “what had I done wrong?”

I definitely do not smack my children but at the same time don’t think badly of my parents and it hasn’t harmed our relationship.

I was smacked at school once by a nun, at home once by my mum - both times on my leg. My grannie smacked me more than once, on the palm of the hand with a light stick. The anticipation was far worse than the very mild pain. No man ever hit me. And there were no mind games or emotional manipulation from the adults in the family.

I don’t know about the nun, obviously, but both my mum and my grannie had very harsh parents. It was learned behaviour and they didn’t persist with it because abuse achieves nothing and can break everything. It faded across the generations I guess. I never hit my children, it never crossed my mind.

I can’t remember either me or my brothers ever being spanked or smacked as children in the 70s.

Yes! hit so you could see handprints- it was awful, frightened to death of my Dad till I was in my 20’s.

My DH born early 70’s too was never hit by his parents.

Yes, I agree, ime it was pretty normal for any adult to have the authority to physically punish a child, especially in school. Our primary school headmaster had a wall full of canes! It was quite normal for punishments to be carried out in front of the rest of the class. One of the teachers used to have a foul temper. He was huge, and would pick up naughty boys (only the boys) and throw them across the room - literally launching a child into the air with force. It was quite something. Another used to throw the (heavy) blackboard rubber at you.

Yeah, open-handed slap to the ear/side of the head. Not usually much power behind it, compared to a smacked bum or a slap across the face. Definitely nothing like a punch.

I was born in 1964 and have 3 older siblings. We were put over our father’s knee and spanked with the flat of his hand. Never slapped in anger, it was planned (was that any better?)

There was also corporal punishment in school, with a cane. I never got that, though.

It certainly was in my world. In fact there was a certain amount of judgement about children who weren’t smacked and their bad behaviour as I can remember my parents and their friends talking about a family who didn't smack their children and them saying “what they need is a good smack” and they were obviously all of the opinion that they were terrible parents for not smacking!

Parents no, but we had a couple of teachers who would throw the blackboard eraser at students.

When I was in infant school, would’ve been 1979-80 one of the boys ran away, taking his toddler sister with him. Fortunately they were not missing for long and all was well but the boy’s mum asked our teacher to tell him off in front of the class and smack him. I can remember him now, lying across the teacher’s knee with his trousers around his ankles being walloped by the teacher as we all sat cross legged watching. I’d forgotten all about it until I read this thread.
and yes, I’d get smacked by my parents and I can remember a lad in my class when I was 13 or so (mid 1980s) getting his ears ‘boxed’, can’t have been long before it was banned.

Yes. Cane, slipper and wooden spoon. Teachers hit us on the head with a heavy book. One teacher banged a boys head on a radiator when he got his french verbs wrong

Smacked on bum, legs and top of arm. Never ever bruised or thrashed though,
Never did me any harm!! (Couldn’t resist saying that! )

I was smacked very occasionally as a child, only ever when I did something really atrocious, and I learned from this. All my friends got an occasional smack. We all grew up with far more respect towards adults than many of today’s young people. We had teachers who threw blackboard rubbers at us on a regular basis, but nothing more serious. My husband got the cane and slipped on a very regular basis. It was all completely normal in the 1960s and 70s.

Never. Apparently my mother also informed the Head Teachers of our schools that they would subject us to corporal punishment at their peril. (She was Italian. And a little bit nuts.)

Frequently. They only stopped when I got bigger and finally hit them back.

I don't think I knew anyone who wasn't smacked if they were naughty. We used to get a smack on the bottom from mum but dad never hit us. I was never physically punished by my grandparents, but I remember my nan boxing my horrible cousin's ears. The cane was used at school quite often but I was well behaved and didn't get it.
A family nearby had a son who was treated badly by his dad and grandad, they used to hit him with a strap. Our teacher reported them to the authorities but I don't think anything happened.

I was born in the 90s and was smacked right up until being a teenager when I remember looking at my mum and saying ‘really?’. I think you are right though the tides were turning. I had friends who were never hit and some that were. I remember being scared of my mum and running away and trying to hide. I would hate my son to feel that way.

She sounds great

Yep, we were hit a lot.
On the hands, arms, back of the legs and arse. Sometimes slapped across the face.
I was badly beaten by my father when I was 7. Couldn't walk after it.
My mother beat my sister around the head and face when she was 16.

Everyone I knew would get a smack on their bum over their clothes if they were really rude or cheeky.

Re. your last line, I agree. Even if the smack didn't really hurt, it was humiliating - especially being smacked on the bum. And the threat was always there...it was scary.

I was hit by my Mum but never by my Dad. I was born in the mid 50s. I was also slapped round the legs by a male teacher in junior school, never knew what I had done wrong