Were you spanked by your parents?

[Blackwater 53393]

I had my tail whacked so many times there is a permanent crack in it!

 

I too was a very slow learner, thus the many leather impacts on the lower extremity. I got a couple that I didn't earn, but I got away with a lot as well. (I've only ever spent a couple of nights in jail in my younger days, and was acquitted of all charges.) I guess I did learn something along the way.

 

My dad became a little more along the abusive side as I grew older and much larger. We finally came to blows after I'd reached adulthood. He was wrong on that occasion. He went down, and I left home that day to live with my future wife's folks for a while. We worked at the same place and he had to deal with me every day. The owner told us to fix the situation or we both could leave.

 

"Your mother wants you to come home," he muttered to me right after lunch.

 

"What do you want?" I asked.

 

"Well, if you don't come home, I won't be eating at home anymore," he grinned sheepishly and walked away.

 

I moved back in a couple of days later and he never raised a hand to me again. I asked him, years later, why things changed back then. He said, "You stood up and took your place as a man that day."

 

We had long ago become friends and gave each other the respect we'd earned along the way.

 

I've only ever spanked my son when he was a child on a few rare occasions. He seldom needed it. When he was eighteen or so, I got a call from a friend who I'd coached baseball against and with over the years our sons had played. It seems that they had gotten together at a field party and someone suggested that they go to town and create some mischief. "Ben said 'Hell NO!' when he heard that," my buddy Tim told me. He went on to tell me what was said.

 

"My old man will kill every one of us if we pull something like that!" Ben said. (This is Hatfield, to those of you who know me and my family.)

 

Tim's oldest son agreed, "And my old man will help him hide the bodies!"

 

Old time discipline is the way to go. Don't hurt 'em! But let them know that there are limits, and consequences when those limits are exceeded.

 

Eamon has it right! I miss the old man too!!

[Boon Doggle]

I think I got more paddling's from the coaches in Jr. High and High School than I got at home. Ping pong paddle across the back of the upper leg would sure make you step high.

 

Ought to be more of that in schools today, being that a lot of parents seem to think it's the schools responsibility to raise the kids.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Is spanking a good or bad parenting practice?

Depends on how you define "spanking". If it means using fists or "tools" like a belt, shoe, switch or whatever, it's abuse. If it leaves welts, bruises or broken skin, it's abuse. It's no different than flogging.

 

I got spanked with tools. Make no mistake, I deserved punishment, but to this day I can say there were options that would have been just as effective. I never laid a hand on my boys. It wasn't necessary because the options to spanking were just as effective.

[Cat Brules]

I was in Albertson's grocery store some years back and up in front by the registers, there was a boy about 4 or 5 misbehaving loudly and so disrespectfully towards his mother that he actually drew a crowd of a half dozen women and myself. The mom was trying to reason with him. finally took him by the shoulder to usher him along. The boy jerked away and gave his mom three hard, vicious kicks. The crowd moved in. The first woman about shook his teeth out and, using her hand gave him about six heavy handed swats across his butt, shook him hard again and cautioned him to never hit his mother again. When she let him go another woman moved in and did the same. The other women were giving the mom what for for allowing the brat to get away with that behavior. They were quick; I realized I had my hands on my belt, but was trumped by those women. The kid was wide-eyed and silently hanging onto mom for dear life. Another woman got in his face and said. "We'll be watching for you, Mister! Don't you ever hit or kick your mother!"

 

Did that traumatize the boy? I don't know and given what I saw and heard I never thought what happened was inappropriate.

Vigilante justice!

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

Wow! I would advise a reasonable person to never physically reprimand a stranger's child.

 

About this comment, "The first woman about shook his teeth out..." Check out the CDC's pamphlet on shaken baby syndrome. It states " SBS injuries have been reported in children up to age 5."

http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/headsup/sbs.html Click on "Journalists Guide to Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Preventable Tragedy."

[Utah Bob #35998]

Wow! I would advise a reasonable person to never physically reprimand a stranger's child.

 

About this comment, "The first woman about shook his teeth out..." Check out the CDC's pamphlet on shaken baby syndrome. It states " SBS injuries have been reported in children up to age 5."

http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/headsup/sbs.html Click on "Journalists Guide to Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Preventable Tragedy."

I still remember he time my second grade teacher grabbed me and shook me near unconcious for some minor misbehaving. I'd happily beat her half to death today if she's still alive.

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

I still remember he time my second grade teacher grabbed me and shook me near unconcious for some minor misbehaving. I'd happily beat her half to death today if she's still alive.

I've got one of those memories too. It was my kindergarten teacher, Miss Blizzard, who shook me for being late. She should have shook my mother; after all, she is the one who drove me to school.

 

It is funny, I don't remember all of my teachers; but, I remember that about my first one...

[Brother King, SASS #69031]

My folks believed in cuttin switches. My ol'man favored his duty belt, which he could release & draw faster than any of us could escape.

 

I never whupped my boys unless they lied or defied their mother. Instead of spankings or time outs they did push ups...and by high school they could all three drop and give 50 as fast as you can count.

 

My view is that they not only learned, but it was good for them, while I could go on with whatever I was doing.

 

Talk back? Ok..make it 30..again? Ok...make it 40...wanna go for 50?

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

I still remember he time my second grade teacher grabbed me and shook me near unconcious for some minor misbehaving. I'd happily beat her half to death today if she's still alive.

 

I'll hold your beer for ya while ya do it!

 

Corporal punishment in public schools may have been an effective tool in some cases, but all too often it was just plain wrong.

 

Three instances come to mind involving "yours truly:"

 

First was when my family moved from the Harlingen area to Waco about November of third grade. First day in my new school the teacher sent me to the blackboard to do a long division problem. I couldn't do it, as the third grade teacher where I'd come from had not yet exposed us to such an abomination. When I said "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I don't know how to do this" and explained why, the ol' bat marched me to the front of the room, had me lean over her desk, and proceeded to whale the tar outta me with a paddle in front of the entire class, all the time shouting "I'll teach YOU how do do arithmetic!" Next day she received a visit from my Aunt Mary, who could be a bat in her own right - never was another third grade paddling.

 

Fourth grade, different school, I was pulled from recess into a vacant classroom by the teacher and principal and administered a thorough paddling for reasons unknown. "But wha'd I do? Wha'd I do??" "You KNOW what you did!" And to this day I have no idea, but speculate that I was framed by another kid for something...

 

Last was actually kinda funny:

 

Sophomore year at the then brand-new D W Carter High School in Dallas. When you finished lunch you were required to vacate the cafeteria, so one day I moseyed on behind the gym to see what might be goin' on. Oh! A lively round of pitching pennies! What fun!! Mind you, I was only a spectator - too broke to lose any pennies.

 

Well, the vice principal (Mister Anderson?) happened to round the corner just as one fella let fly his penny - and OH my WORD!! We all received a lively lecture on the evils of gambling that only ended when the bell rang - literally, "saved by the bell!" Off to algebra beat a Mister Anderson lecture ANY day!

 

So the next day, yup... back behind the gym. Again, too broke to participate, 'specially since the fellas had moved up to nickels. And as luck would have it, here comes Mister Anderson, just in time to witness some gangly kid announce the loss of his last nickel with a "Oh! Bleepity Bleep Bleep! That was my LAST BLEEPIN' NICKEL!!!"

 

Oh, HORRORS!! Not only were the miscreants again gambling, but they were speaking profanity!!!

 

And, Mister Anderson being the pious man he was, marched us all - including the lone innocent spectator, ME! - to the administration office. Lined us all up against the wall in the corridor, and had us in one at a time to receive our paddling; when we exited, we were to line up on the opposite wall. That let him keep score, I reckon...

 

And I was SO fortunate to be second in line! Watching kids move in and come out and hearing the *whaps!* it became evident that the more he paddled, the madder Mister Anderson became. There were about eight of us; the last fella, a BIG football player, exited rubbing his butt and with huge tears streaming down his face - and Mister Anderson was fairly red and dripping sweat from his workout.

 

Nobody poked fun at the football player, and nobody pitched pennies again from that day forward. Unless we knew Mister Anderson was out for the day!

[Smoken D]

As a cop I recall twice being called to a home on a child. The parents wanted me to spank the kid for them. I advised them that police officers were not for that reason, but I would be more than willing to stand by as they spanked the child and would stop them if it became abusive. Both times the parents smiled and proper punishment was adue.

[Yul Lose]

In 1962 I got my butt warmed at school for getting in a fist fight with another second grader that resulted in a classmate getting her glasses broken. Frank and I got to the office and the principal gave us both well deserved whacks with a hardwood paddle. As soon as my two sisters got home they spilled the beans to mom and I got some more from her and when dad showed up he really gave it to me. Frank and I had to pay for new glasses also and at a quarter a month for allowance it took a long time. Over the next 6 or eight years I didn't learn anything from it because I still got whacks at school and follow ups at home.

 

In woodshop class my senior year I was talking when I should have been listening and my shop teacher attempted to give me a surprise whack with a maple paddle. Well a buddy of mine warned me to move just as the whack was being delivered and the paddle shattered on the work bench that I had been standing in front of. My new shop project was to build a new shop paddle and I was its first customer.

[Echeconnee Drifter]

 

Ditto! There's a difference between spanking and beating. It leaves whelps but a willow switch, imho, sure could make you see the error of your ways. Worse of all was the indignity of having to cut your own.

Amen! The three worst words I ever heard growing up.

 

Cut. A. Switch.

 

I got a few spankin's in my life, never very many. Got all of one switchin' and didn't never want that no more!

 

FYI, I have the world's greatest relationship with my parents. Seriously, it's the kind of relationship that people wish they'd had when they look back on their lives in their golden years.

[Marshal Rusty Bore SASS#22739]

I was disciplined by my parents, my only spanking was by my wife! ;-)

[Blackwater 53393]

I attended 14 different schools between first grade and graduation. When my dad brought me in to register for a new school, he would introduce me and himself to the principal, "this is my boy Tommy. If he steps outta' line, you bust his butt!! Then all me and he'll get twice that when he gets home!"

 

He also held the school accountable when they were wrong. He was tough on me, but he was tougher on anyone who mistreated me!!

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

I'd say yes if done right. "But" When I was a kid my dad would literally "whip" me and my brother with a leather belt on the bare bottom, just smack smack smack smack smack over and over. I'd be bruised and black and blue for days if not weeks, and sometimes couldn't walk afterward. Problem was that was how he was raised and he would do it when he was actually mad at us. I was stubborn as I got older and would do everything I could not to cry, which only made him madder and it got worse. We got whipped for everything... that was the only punishment for every kid crime. If one of us did something and wouldn't admit it (usually my brother) he would whip both of us. It eventually stopped because once I fought back. I've honestly never forgiven myself for fighting my dad though. I hated him when he did it, but I was the best behaved kid on the block because I was scared. My dad never drank or anything, he just had a bad temper. When he wasn't like that we had fun shooting, hunting and fishing. He taught me to be self sufficient, how to build, fix, or work on just about everything. When I was older we reconciled over all that when something happened to him that changed him. Anyways when I had my own kids I vowed i would never do what he had done to me so i could break that cycle. I still believed in "spanking" but I made some rules. Never when angry, no more than three bare hand swats (no belts etc) and never skin on skin. I discovered what I think my dad never saw. Just the mere fact that your dad was spanking you, even if not that hard, was enough to send a message without needing to provide a severe whipping. So yes, I believe in it if due right, for the right reason. My kids are all adults now and they seem fine, and as far as i can tell they all still like me.

[Eamon Chute]

I had 13 years of Catholic school education (K-12). If you did something you weren't supposed to, acted out, or such, Sister Mary Bernadell (aka: Sister Mary Burn in Hell) simply took you out of class and returned you 10 minutes later. You were NOT in the same condition as you left the class room. It only took one such visit with her to change your attitude forever. Except for Billy Garcia. He seemed to have a "learning" disability in this regard......

 

 

EC

[SGT. QUINCANNON, SASS #32999]

I was, but not as often as I deserved.

[Utah Bob #35998]

I've got one of those memories too. It was my kindergarten teacher, Miss Blizzard, who shook me for being late. She should have shook my mother; after all, she is the one who drove me to school.

 

It is funny, I don't remember all of my teachers; but, I remember that about my first one...

Some people have no business being teachers.

[Boon Doggle]

A LOT of people have no business being teachers. Or administrators.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I was disciplined by my parents, my only spanking was by my wife! ;-)

Ya beat me to it Marshal, boy I miss those spankings by my ex!!!