Smacking - how your parents did it?

[notalreadyinuse]

• [Message from MNHQ - please note, this thread was started in 2011]

I assume that most people who were young children in the 70s were smacked by their parents, but a thread today reminded me about something that has been bothering me.

My dad always pulled my pants down to smack me - until about the age of 8 I think when I think the smacking mostly stopped.

I wondered if this was "normal" then?

Namechanged for this one...

I was born in 1984 and my mum was a smacker. Pants down- wack! On the bottom, or top of the leg as I got older. Stopped around 8 or 9 I think. My dad didn't smack though. My mum has since said she wouldn't do it if she had her time again.

I am 100% anti smacking. Has it mentally scarred me? Probably not, but the idea of inflicting pain, even mild pain, on my child is child abuse Imo.

5 year old zombie thread resurrected 3 months ago then today.Why?

My mother smacked me over my clothes. My dad smacked me once when I dabbed mustard on her tongue. I asked her if she wanted some and she said yes. I now know a 2 year old might not know what mustard is.

Slap around the head was always our punishment. Would happen if he walked into a room and just felt like it. He was then surprised that we always flinched when he moved suddenly. Oh, and if we weren't eating in a manner that he felt appropriate, he would lean across the table and stab the top of our hands with his fork. Sounds unbelievable now.

28 years old and still having pants pulled down and belted and smacked on the bare backside when I'm naughty. This would happen anywhere even in public. I respect my parents for it.

Weeemzs Your post has been duly reported you sad weirdo

I was born in the 60's mum and dad smacked me

Dad has massive hands and doesn't know his own strength, he was also,solid muscle then, backs of legs round the head, I remember wetting myself in fear once, had a migraine for hours after a head shot.
I think mum knew that was wrong, even she was worried.

I'm scared shitless of my dad, I sit with my back to the wall always like a previous poster said, if a guy raises his voice I freeze and hold by breath every time, I'm now conditioned Like this and also think I have PTS and have done for many years.

Born '76 and was regularly smacked/hit by my mother. She'd use implements mostly; feather dusters with hard plastic handles; slippers were a favourite; wooden handled breadboards; metal fish slice. If she used her hand she'd grab a leg, tip us over and smack as hard as possible on the top inside of the thigh. Hurt more there. But we were 'lucky' cause her parents used a belt and 'it never did me any harm".

Born in 75 - Dad never hit us, ever but mum used to be terrible for it. Remember feeling ashamed going to swimming and knowing my friends could see the red welts on my legs from the slapping. Also remember mum slapping and hitting me while i was rolling around on the floor trying to defend myself and my friend watched (trying not to laugh!)

Also remember being hit by my friends mum for accidentally smashing a glass vase at her house -my parents were called and I was collected. I mentioned it to her a couple of years back when I saw her and I laughed about it, sort of reminiscing about old times, but she went red faced with embarrassment and was mortified! She's a social worker now.

I am from a normal, happy, middle class family. I fully believe it was normal in the 70's/80's.

I was born in 1974 and from 6 to 10 I had a lot of bare bottom hand spankings over my mothers knee.
Mum then introduced the slipper and the cane at age 11 and I had the slipper about 10 times a year and the cane about 4 times a year usually 6 strokes . I had to bend over and Mum took my knickers down.
When I got to 17 I got the cane every time mainly for breaking curfew usually 8 strokes until I was 21 when curfew times stopped.
I went out with my younger sister one night and Mum and Dad had gone out and we stayed out after my sisters curfew time we did not expect them to be back.
My sister was 20 and I was 22.
My sister was caned on her bare bottom ( 8 strokes ).
I then bent over after her. Mum took my knickers down and gave me 10 strokes.
Mum spoke to me after and said it was a difficult situation as I had not broken any rules but I had done wrong. She said she was glad when I bent over of my own accord and took my punishment. She said she gave me 10 strokes of the cane as I should have known better.

My parents would stand me and my bro together and smack our heads into each other.
It never stopped us being 'bad'. Ridiculous way to punish a kid.

It stopped when I knocked my Dad flat out for hitting me with a stick because I dropped a bottle of milk when I was 15.

Don't speak to them much anymore.

When I was about 19 I wore a skirt which was too short. I got 6 strokes of the cane on my bottom and 2 on the back of my thighs.

Hand, slippers, back of a wooden clothes brush (very heavy) - all by my Mum. Dad didn’t smack or hit.

He used to be chased with the iron poker from the fire when he was a kid and his Mum definitely smacked him.

Born mid 60's.
Dad always smacked us around the head. Bloody hard as well.
Mum smacked us around the top of the legs.
Would also be given Chinese burns; not for punishment, but just coz my dad thought it was funny.

ZOMBIE!!!!!!!!!!

Dont care if it's a zombie - finding it very useful.

Weapons of Mass Destruction in our house were many and varied, always within easy reach for any incident any where in the house (or outside of it)

1. Hair brushes - these were always all broken in half as one of us had been belted on the back of the legs so hard they snapped. This always happened at the fractious, rushed hair brushing (pulling) pony tail making in a rage as we were always running late (6 DD's one set of twins in 5 years) in the mornings before school or church.

2. Wooden Scholl clog/thing

3. Metal spatula - egg flipping kind. Most frequent implement for beating - mostly being chased around the dining table, up the stairs etc - she had a long reach for a little woman (wooden spoon sounds folky and twee to me by comparison) - that left a specific pattern. Once she hit me with the side of it (by mistake) and caused a wide gash and nearly took my wrist clean off.

4)'Sally rod" - bamboo - that was the worst.

5)A long (1m) piece of plastic - better reach/flexible for max impact.

6)A slap across the face, sideways, out of the blue, wearing hot soapy marigolds when she was washing up in a rage and you dared to grumble when drying up.

7)Vicious nails dug deep into your upper arms for the silent, hidden punishment thru gritted teeth when you were in church or out in public.

8)Leather belt with a buckle.

9)Good old hair pull and shake or straight slap.

10. Reinforcements - she called in her evil brothers to beat and verbally abuse us when she was out of her depth.

11)Hard labour - she was OCD about housework so everyday involved such things as clearing out kitchen cupboards, wardrobes etc to clean the insides of them and put everything back in again.

She had extreme MH issues at the time, lived life in a ranting rage bringing up 6 daughters in poverty alone.

It did affect me.

I have really struggled with parenting and processing my own rage and short fuse.

My mum did bare bum smacking, but stopped when we were about 4. She regrets it very much and has told me she wishes she had parented more like I did with mine - my kids have not been smacked.

Smacking is lazy parenting and unnecessary.

Not sure about the 70s - I was born in 1990 and definitely got the 'bum's rush' if I crossed the line! Until I was about ten it was pants down smacks on the area (usually because mum or dad had caught my by the arm running away rather than a bent over the knee affair!) This stopped when I was about ten which actually coincided with hitting puberty and I imagine the two weren't unrelated. At sixteen I got a few slaps around the face but these were the result of EXTREME circumstances and not what I'd call normal child discipline (I was incredibly unwell - psychologically - and in certain states behaved so appallingly and 'madly' that I think slapping was a kind of 'snap out of it' as much as a disciplinary action)

Can still remember the fear of running up the stairs with an angry parent in pursuit having earned a wallop though! Times have changed now and should I ever be blessed with a child I won't be hitting them. Ever.

ZOMBIE thread from 6 years ago

I grew up in the 1960s when we could be punished physically but rarely I might add. But I seem to think that the crime rates were lower because the law also could be tough. Sadly, and I was a school governor for many years, the standards have slipped.