Did all parents hit their kids in the 1970s?

[Polythene]

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

I was smacked quite hard on the bottom a couple of times as a child. I was only little but remember a horrible feeling of burning humiliation. I am sure my parents would be sad if they knew that, but I’d never tell them as in every other way they were great and loving parents. Back then it was an accepted parenting tool sadly.

I was born in 66. I was never hit or smacked.

I’ll tan your hide Oh my God, I haven’t heard that expression since I was a kid, that brings back some memories 😁

We were occasionally smacked if behaving very badly and refusing to listen. We were also smacked in school until from P1 until about P4/5-ish. I can't remember it happening after that.

I wouldn't say it was fine, but I am in no way traumatised by it and it hasn't affected my relationship with my parents. In fact, I never think about it.

Well I was born much later in ‘87 and I was smacked in the 90s! Old skool, older parents. Not often but I do remember it. My older brother, born in ‘82 was also smacked.

Yes, it was common, 60s too. Not just at home, but caning at school. I don't think it did us any harm, nobody I know at least, and we had boundaries and respected them in general.

It wasn’t spoken about among my friends, as far as I remember. My brother and I were smacked by our dad, it was just normal in our family. I was bloody awful, but there was no one to complain to.

1983 here and a tanned hide was a regular occurrence.........(for good reasons.......eg. "begging for the blind" and keeping the proceeds to name but a few).....

I remember finding it vaguely funny once too - in that slightly scary "aaaargh I'm being chased" kind of way - when my mum lunged at my legs with a limp flick of the wrist.

I don't mean that to take away from the pp who clearly were beaten and genuinely physically hurt. Ours was more hurt pride than physical pain.

I think the truth is that "smacking" probably ran across a huge spectrum and at one end must have been very wrong and very traumatising.

I had the odd smack from my mum. DP was regularly battered by his dad. His mum not so much. She mostly just gave the command to his dad who was happy to oblige. Interestingly, after the first three siblings, who were all subjected to this treatment, DP’s parents had two more children after a 12 year gap. And they weren’t hit at all. Worse still, one of them has accused the older siblings of lying about just how bad things were🙄

Yes and the naughty boys got beaten ("the slipper") at school (primary and comprehensive schools). I don't recall girls getting the same punishment.

Agreed with the vaguely funny.....remember being caught and running around my dads legs avoiding the inevitable!

My mum smacked my bum a couple of times (born 1980).

I was born in 1969 so was a 70's child, my parents never smacked us.

School was another story, I never experienced it but smacking in infant/primary school, the cane or the strap in secondary, it was brutal.

Regularly smacked around the head for saying something she didn’t like.
she tried that with my daughter 20 years later and my daughter hit my mum back.

‘I’ll knock you into the middle of next week!’
Defo got smacked bottom and legs when I was naughty. Red hand marks but no bruises. I was scared of how angry I’d made my parents but not necessarily the pain. And I do remember I had been wilfully naughty.
That said, I did not smack my own DC. It didn’t feel right, even when I was furious with them.

Yes me. Certainly didn't go through a whole week without a slap or hit. In my late teems before it stopped.

using physical punishment can certainly vary on a scale of 1-100.
sadly some children were seriously beaten. most got a their hands smacked by adults for touching things they shouldn't, greedy with grubby hands in food bowls, spanked on top of clothing for doing something dangerous like charging onto the road without looking or pulling up plants in the garden. maybe a quick clip to the top of the head later as a pre teen for saying something nasty.

i don't remember any friends or family being particularly "frightened" by this method of reprimand. nor do i remember any serious redness or bruising or hurt beyond pride. certainly no sustained crying.

as much as it could vary i saw more long term damage from parents who constantly guilt tripped their children into submission, some serious long term mental health co-dependent issues with mothers and fathers who used that form of punishment.

Schools had the cane. At my school it was a whack across the palm of the hand.

My parents smacked me and my siblings occasionally usually after a significant misdemeanor like being horrible to each other. But we were all much loved by our parents and I don't remember ever feeling distraught by having an occasional smack.

I vividly remember running away from her trying to smack my bum/ thighs and grabbing the newel post of the bannister and launching myself upstairs (I got away and hid in the spare room wrapped in a candlewick bedspread!) (edited for spelling candlewick amd candlestick

Oh that sounds like a reasonable action in response to an accident 😏

My Mum used to smack me across the back of my legs. Very painful.

Not mine

I was a child in the 50s - my mother never hit/smacked me and my father only did so once. My DD was born in 1979 and I’m ashamed to say that I did smack her once. In my experience physical punishment wasn’t at all the norm.

I can't understand how smacking round the head was ever a thing.

Though this comes from me, who had my first dc down at A and E every time there was a little bump to the head - then you kind of learn toddlers do bump their heads.

But I just cannot imagine smacking a head on purpose.