@anon19035908
I don’t think it did me any harm, as I said above it was a very, very rare occurance but just because it ‘didn’t do me any harm’ doesn’t mean its OK.

I just disagree with it entirely.
I don’t think people should resort to violence (however mild) to discipline a child.
(or anyone!)

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Got smacked as a kid and I wasn’t even naughty

I love my mum and there was shit going on but I still cry about it now

I’m sorry to hear that :frowning: it can easily cross the line to bad outcomes and i definitely only defend it in very specific circumstances which are probably like 2% out of 100 where the rest is bad

Definitely.
My mum once was cleaning one of her china lady model things and I screamed outside so loud that it startled her and she dropped it and smashed all it’s fingers off.

Was smacked as a child but knew when to misbehave cause my mums soft tiny hands wouldn’t really do much but oh boy if my dad was about with his huge leather dry hands, i’d get a proper whop

Didn’t change my behaviour at all. Just got faster at running up the stairs and stronger at holding my door shut to avoid the smack!

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I was lovely apparently. Very happy, didn’t cry much.

It all went wrong when I hit puberty as it normally does.

I honestly thought everyone got smacked as a child?

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I think my siblings were probably worse than me (there was a time when my sister got a pair of compasses and etched my name into the wood of our piano, for example).

There was smacking, but I can’t tell whether it made me better or not, because more than anything else there was the threat of being smacked that hung over you. I know I’m one of the older DiSsers, and thankfully attitudes were definitely changing throughout my childhood - I imagine that for some of the younger people about there wasn’t nearly as much of that threat.

I didn’t.

I agree with @Gnometorious on this.

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I’m in no way saying smacking is acceptable. I just thought when I was a kid getting smacked, mostly everyone else was also getting smacked. It’s only really been fairly recent (like 10-15 years) where smacking kids is seen as unacceptable and more put them on the naughty step vibes. We’ve got Jo Frost to thank for that!

I was generally well behaved and raised to respect my elders and all that, would never talk to my mum or step dad the way I heard some kids talk to theirs and I was afraid of getting into trouble, I hated being told off, I didn’t need the threat of being smacked to stop doing something I was told not to do, a stern telling off was enough.

Do you think you would not have respected your parents if they didn’t smack you?

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Was definitely surprised as well when I learned that getting a smack off your parent was something that people had never experienced, and conversely they thought that getting hit by your parents was a whole getting flayed by belts situation which it wasn’t for me anyway

It definitely worked more for respecting my siblings, usually when I got a smack it was for doing something to them, had definitely been raised to be respectful to parents but 4 of us siblings rarely fought as a result of this or did anything serious other than mild name calling because we didn’t want to get into trouble

this is the thing, right

it’s not smacking that does anything to change a child’s behaviour, it’s a whole lot of other things

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I was a right cry baby

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My mother claims that “like the cat, you brought yourself up”.

I still am!
And it gets me out of trouble!

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at some stage I learned to suppress it and haven’t cried since

was apparently a really chill kid on the whole. used to really dig my heels in on a few things that I wanted to do a lot, like watch cartoons late or play football, but apparently never really threw tantrums and that.

nice to know that my barely suppressed general rage is probably pathological.

Oh no! Put some sad music on and have a nice big cry, it’s good for you.

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