Did you ever get the slipper at home?

[austinsmam]

How times change! Was all the rage in the 70/80s, with Beano characters being whacked on a weekly basis. My OH got it at school and my mum kept a slipper just for smacking (yes, social services have been informed!). I know it was used in schools, but did anyone get it at home?

[suzybsue]

do any MN`ers agree with smacking now?

[deaddei]

We had the leather razor strap- I kid you not.
Only got it twice, my brother not so lucky.

[babyignoramus]

Cory, my dad remembers getting the cane at school in the 60s - some teachers relied on it for everything down to minor misdemeanours, while others never used it at all - guess who got the most respect from the children? Suffice to say, when the cane was banned the ones who relied on it suddenly had no discipline at all.

My mum got the belt at school for having 'careless handwriting'. She was 5.

[suzybsue]

my dad got the cane at school too

[deaddei]

My dad was a teacher in the 50s and caned- I got the ruler across the hand when I was 8 at school for smirking because I only got 6/10 in a test.
No wonder I now work for a childrens charity...

[austinsmam]

I am glad we never got the belt in our house

[KTNoo]

Just read whole thread and interested to find so many different responses/memories of similar situations. Some of you feel that your parents smacking you didn't affect you much whereas others obviously have very painful memories of what appears to be "similar" situations (although obviously I can't say it was the same and people respond differently etc etc).

But it has got me thinking. I remember being smacked sometimes, usually because I had wound my parents up to the point where they lost their tempers. I don't think it was right, but I can see why it happened (have my own 3 little delights to wind me up now ) and I don't feel upset that it happened. However, I have lots of painful memories of horrible atmospheres, snidey comments to each other and me. I have lots of emotional issues relating to all that still, as well as a fraught relationship with my parents. So I would say this has been damaging to me whereas the smacking has not - what would others say?

[pranma]

I was born in 1944 and was never hit with anything at all!Mum once stood at the bottom of the stairs and prodded me with the brush end of a sweeping brush because I wouldnt go to bed and dad once put me over his knee but didnt actually hit me-he was so disgusted at himseltf that he went and bought me a comic[some punishment]I was an only child.

[austinsmam]

KTN I have mainly very happy memories of my childhood, and i so feel for the posters who were not so fortunate. I also count myself lucky that my parents never had any major bust ups and are still together to this day.

[SarahLondon1]

I smacked by my mum until the age of 12 and then slippered after that until I was just over 16.

I always deserved the punishments that I got and the slipper was only given for serious things.

[austinsmam]

I must have been 12-13 when i last got the slipper. 16 was quite old Sarah?

[slowreadingprogress]

KT I would say that it doesn't have to be 'horrible atmospheres' etc OR smacking. It can be neither!

I was never smacked thank goodness. I remember VERY clearly feeling very proud of my parents to be honest. I saw friends belittled by being dragged by the arm and smacked on the bum and it mortified me. Even as a small child I felt pride in my parents that they would talk to me or find other ways.

[jeminthecellar]

My mam smacked me and gave me the slipper too. My dad gave my brothers the belt...hmmm

Not past age of around 10 for me though. I remember Dad chasing my brother down the street when he was around 15, with a belt in his hand- my brother escaped on a 6 year olds' bike(mine), he looked quite comical- dad was furious though.

My brother was a very violent adult- nasty violent.

Dad was never violent to any of the female children.

Hmmm.

[piscesmoon]

I think I am one of the older mums on here and no one has ever hit me. There was the cane at school, but only for boys and then it was very rarely used.

[itwasntme]

I got the hand or the wooden spoon. (born in 1970) My mum was vicious with that spoon. When the "crime" was really bad, we had to pull our pants down and have the wooden spoon on a bare bum. Lashing out I could have dealt with. This was pre-meditated and degrading. I still have a problem with my mother about this, especially now I am a mother. I could never hurt my children like this.

At my primary school, when a child was naughty, the teacher took them by the shoulders and shook them as hard as she could

[Jops]

I was smacked at home, not often, but enough to remember. That said, I think i hated being sent to bed early as a punishment more and I don't agree with smacking now, don't think it achieves anything.

Oh, and I remember being hit round the head with a ruler by a teacher once! Can you imagine what would happen if a teacher did that nowadays (I was born in 75)?!!

[edam]

I got the slipper once. Was smacked quite often. And my mother used to threaten to bang our heads together if we didn't stop arguing (actually did this once, it really hurt) or give us a clip round the ear.

Grew up in the 70s when all this was normal. Remember my mother being quite disparaging about 'hippie' friends who never hit their children.

I really, really hated it. Even as a small child, I'd worked out it was just about my parents saying 'We are bigger than you' and really contradictory given they told us not to hit.

[slowreadingprogress]

exactly edam. Children are clever enough from very young to know that being hit by parents is not a sensible or thoughtful thing to have done to you

I also really respect people who have the imagination to move on from their own up-bringing and not do the 'well it didn't do me any harm' thing. My mum was hit with stair rods but thank goodness was bright enough to break the pattern with us.

I hate to hear all this but it makes you realise how far many people have come in the last generation, particularly schools!

[nappyzoneisback]

We would get the slipper hurled accross the room at us or chased with it - it did become more a joke as we got older and the effectivness wore off though it wasnt a frequent thing just when we went too far. We used to only by soft slippers for them at xmas as we learned or lesson the year we bought ones my dad could walk outside with - ouch!

[bigTillyMint]

I didn't, but I remember my auntie chasing her boys around the room with one raised high in the air a la Beano!

I did have my knuckles rapped by a teacher at primary school. For talking too much

[slowreadingprogress]

my MIL tells me that she chased her DD round the house with a wooden spoon once. I can't help feeling that at that point she had somewhat lost control of the situation!

nappyzone, now that's what I call lazy parenting - hurling the slipper and not even getting up

[birdsfoot]

My godmother used to dish out wallops with the fish slice in the mid-70s. It was always summer when we were at her house so we'd have stripy thighs below our purple terry-toweling shorts.

[edam]

My chemistry teacher used to throw chalk if someone was talking. He was a terrifyingly good shot. But none of us minded because he was so funny. I really didn't resent him. Once demonstrated exactly why we shouldn't blow on a bunsen burner by, er, blowing on a bunsen burner. I have never jumped off a stool quite so quickly, if the first row hadn't ducked we'd have all been down at the burns unit...

As I said, I resented being smacked. My mother has told me quite a few times now that I should smack ds if he's naughty and that the move away from smacking is to blame for so many badly behaved children these days... I don't bother to argue about it, have never told her how much I hated it but certainly don't smack ds (except once when I lost my temper, felt terrible and have never done it again).

[PinkTulips]

wooden spoon if it was accesable... whatever was to hand if it wasn't.

squash rackets, sticks, remote controls, books, magazines and bare hands are the main ones i remember