When you grew up did you get "spanked" or no physical punishment from parents?
It does not seem like this is very common these days. When I was a kid, it seemed like common practice.
Certainly my parents physically whipped my brother and I. So when I grew up it seemed normal, but when I look back on it, I realize it was quite excessive and often without reason.
And the effect was different than was intended.
My father would make a big deal out of it, and the psychological trauma of it was far worse than the actual beatings. For instance, my father would say, "I'm going to whip you until you cry, and then I'm going to keep whipping you until you stop crying".
This was really disturbing to my brother and I.
He also made a big deal about using his belt. And there were a set of a big 18-inch wooden fork and wooden spoon that hung on the wall that were used.
The whipping only stopped when I physically would not tolorate it anymore, by first being fast enough to run away from my parents (my brother and I still laugh about this), and later being big enough to stand up to them.
Is physically punishing children even allowed anymore? Did you get it or no? If you personally think it is a reasonable punishment, where do you draw the line of what is and is not appropriate?
#2 - Combatting it with laughter is good if you can do it.
If my brother and I laughed or talked to much in church, we'd get told that we were getting a whipping when we got home. So of course all the waiting for it was a big bummer.
[My mother] used a piece from a racing track to do it. But eventually, my brother and I realized that if we get a forewarning of it, we would cram all kinds of toys and stuff in our pants to shield the beating. And one time we started laughing and saying it didn't hurt and to do more and made each other laughing at it.
At a certain point, we realized we could outrun the parents, so no need to be upset about it, right? My mother would be chasing me with the dreaded "wooden spoon" swinging it through the air. (One time she chipped a piece out of it, as she swung it to hit me, but I dodged and she hit the doorway). But she would chase us, and we'd just climb onto the top bunk of the bunk beds. When she climbed up, we'd just jump down. And repeat if necasary.
We'd sometimes be laughing in this process.
The whippings were f*cked up, but it never made us docile. It seemed to have the opposite effect.
#3 - One set of our babysitters was a mother and daughter. And I remember one of them would hold up my brother by the arm in the air, while the other whipped him.
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