Did your parents beat you as a child?

[JohnD]

Woe betide the parent that does not use corporal punishment to mold the children. If nothing else, it drives them nuts. I hear kids today screaming bloody murder if they don't get the candy bar they saw on the aisle while shopping with mom or dad. We all want things we can't afford or shouldn't have... I'm 51 and I still have these cravings... so it's not just a phase... the little buggers need to know how to deny self. Would that I denied self half as much as I should have over the years...

But had I thrown a fit like that as a child...

Oy gvald!

With Dad, I'd be dangling from one arm as he lifted me that way out the door to the parking lot where the swift retrieval of his belt snapped as the end passed through the belt loops...

the first of the leather sounds I dreaded as a child...

then there was leather cutting air as it headed for my bent over rump...

then the crashing sound as it connected usually four or five times...

This is the tale of the way I learned some of my best lessons in life.

With mom... she usually threatened to leave us in the store and we could never come home. Then it was military school she'd threaten us with as we got older... but the worst was...

"Wait till your Father gets home!"

It was like a death sentence. And death row was the time before Dad got home and Mom had a few hours of unfamiliar peace. I'd make cards, bring her flowers from the yard, promise to never ever make her mad again... ah, but she knew from her dating years this was all just empty male promises... LOL... because just when I thought I'd pulled the wool over her eyes but good... I'd hear Dad drive up and Mom greet him as she usually did and "by the way, your eldest son did..."

Rats!

The horror came back as my dad said, "He did what?!!!"

I tried to figure where I could hide as I heard the heavy rapid footfalls approaching and my doom was at hand...

One time I remember all of us getting spanked (which is what we called it back then) for smoking. I was the eldest, therefore the ringleader... but I couldn't cry that time. I felt the love of my father through his lashes of the belt and they hurt real bad but I knew it was for love. I think it angered him a bit when I hugged him immediately afterward but he softened and explained he only wanted the best for us and letting us smoke or drink or whatever was not what was best for us.

I remember a pastor in Midland Texas (Dr. Frank Johnson) said his Oklahoma upbringing included the beatings of his parents and their motto: we aren't going to let you grow up to be a man people can't stand to be around. Good words.

When I hear of people doing terrible things to their children... I often wonder if it was what Dr. James Dobson said was the pressure cooker syndrome. A kid acts like a heathen and the parent counts to three. The kid knows there's no real consequence so they count along with them and go on to about eight. So? You counted. Big deal. And the time-outs are in bedrooms with television and computer or stereo and gameboy... what's the point? So the steam pressure builds as the kid gets more and more evil and the parent gets more and more frustrated... then POW! an over reaction is achieved and a kid is in a cast or worse.

The Bible prescribes corporal punishment for both the children and the parents, I'm convinced.

[JohnD]

My mom would switch us for most anything and then later tell Dad who then gave us the belt so we usually got two for one wrong. went to school a million

time with rwd welts on legs and or back.

Oh that reminds me... when I was growing up almost all adults had authority over you. You submitted to their authority. You answered them yes ma'am yes sir no ma'am no sir. No exceptions. So if I got caught in the old man's apple tree next door (the one he told me to stay out of) he would take firm hold of my ear and drag me to my folks' who took me by that same ear while apologizing to the neighbor modified with embarrassment and once the door closed the beatings began for 1. disobeying an adult 2. for embarrassing my parents in front of the neighbors 3. general principles...

Today a kid does terrible things the only recourse is to call the police....

Which reminds me of the worst beating I think I ever had and my having to work off the replacement plate glass window I broke and ran and the police were called in and we (there were three of us) made up lies and then we confessed all. Only for the Grace of God... man oh man...

[Guest HisG]

I did not get beaten as a child.

My dad's "look" was enough -

[oldzimm]

I did not get beaten as a child.

My dad's "look" was enough -

Oh yes, "The dreaded look of dad", brings back memories. My two sons got more then their share of lichens, but my daughter, all I had to do was look at her and she would start crying, run up the steps, into her room. The funny thing is, I didn't know at first that there was a "DREADED DAD LOOK".The look must be something females see and boys don't get bother by it (their daring). At first I was sorta of confused, but my wife informed me that I gave my daughter "THE LOOK" .

[Guest]

Oh that reminds me... when I was growing up almost all adults had authority over you. You submitted to their authority. You answered them yes ma'am yes sir no ma'am no sir. No exceptions. So if I got caught in the old man's apple tree next door (the one he told me to stay out of) he would take firm hold of my ear and drag me to my folks' who took me by that same ear while apologizing to the neighbor modified with embarrassment and once the door closed the beatings began for 1. disobeying an adult 2. for embarrassing my parents in front of the neighbors 3. general principles...

Today a kid does terrible things the only recourse is to call the police....

This was the case when I was growing up as well. My only real issue with all of it was the mental head trips dad would play. There were times when nothing anyone did seemed to be "good enough."

[winsomebulldog]

My mother had "the look," too. Plus, there was "the voice." Both spelled imminent doom if I didn't straighten up that instant. LOL

My husband laughs and says his mother would smack him with whatever was within reach. Kitchen utensils, brooms, whatever she could get her hands on. But then he's the kind of guy that I can just imagine drove her absolutely insane when he was a kid. He's in his mid-forties now and still has lightning fast wit and sarcasm. He keeps it toned way down with me for the most part, but I know he wasn't that careful when he was younger. I can just imagine him snapping something sassy back at her and her seeing red. Bless her heart, it's a miracle she didn't lose her mind. But, he turned out better than okay. Sarcasm aside, he's the best man I've ever known. (Might have something to do with why I married him. ) He's got a streak of honor and integrity a mile wide. Respects everyone unless they give him a reason not to, and treats all his elders with complete respect. And he's got a work ethic that you just don't see much anymore. His mama did a fine job with him.

[Guest]

I was beat, no love in that house. My mom still doesn't know how to show love - she never saw it. Thank GOD we went to church!

That is sad. She probably wasn't shown love either and didn't know how to show you love.

I know that to be the case. But it still hurts. I love her, though. And I make sure she knows it.

[2Joyful]

I forgot in school...

The principle and teachers had the power to paddle. In my day...Mr. Robinson (the principle) used the rubber from a tire shaped as a paddle...its name was John Henry. The teachers used strips of fan belts and rulers. The girls could only wear dresses or skirts when I attend school. We had to sit in a chair and they would whip us across our legs...boys backside. Rulers were used across our knuckles.

[Zemke]

I forgot in school...

The principle and teachers had the power to paddle. In my day...Mr. Robinson (the principle) used the rubber from a tire shaped as a paddle...its name was John Henry. The teachers used strips of fan belts and rulers. The girls could only wear dresses or skirts when I attend school. We had to sit in a chair and they would whip us across our legs...boys backside. Rulers were used across our knuckles.

"John Henry" Every school needs a John Henry!!! "John Henry for school superintendent." Education with a fix.

[2Joyful]

I forgot in school...

The principle and teachers had the power to paddle. In my day...Mr. Robinson (the principle) used the rubber from a tire shaped as a paddle...its name was John Henry. The teachers used strips of fan belts and rulers. The girls could only wear dresses or skirts when I attend school. We had to sit in a chair and they would whip us across our legs...boys backside. Rulers were used across our knuckles.

"John Henry" Every school needs a John Henry!!! "John Henry for school superintendent." Education with a fix.