What I Learned about Spankings
I thought I would share something I wrote for fun while practicing writing from a child’s perspective. This is a true story. Everyone is about sixty years older by now, and Mom and Dad are no longer living, so there’s no use fussing about whether it was handled in the best way or not. It is what it is. A discussion about spankings is welcome in the comments.
When I was a really little kid like three or four maybe, I learned something about getting a spanking. I did something that was wrong, but I forgot what it was now. But Mama caught me doing whatever it was–probably something she told me not to do. She picked up a plastic hairbrush off her dresser and looked at me with that look–you know what I mean, the one that means you’re in trouble now. She said, “Come here, Janice.”
I knew what that meant, I was going to get a spanking. Well, I thought fast, and decided to turn the other way and run! Guess what? Mama could run faster than me. Guess what else? I didn’t just get a spanking, I got two spankings. Mama gave me the first one for doing whatever it was I had done that I shouldn’t have. She spanked me with the back of the hairbrush, and it broke in two. The second spanking was because I ran away when she told me to come to her.
We had to use that hairbrush with the handle broken off for a long time to brush our hair. Maybe that is why I remembered this spanking so long.
After I got older my little brother tried the same trick. We lived on a farm then and we both got a spanking on the same day. I got mine first because I was older and should have known better than to climb on those bags of cement in our yard.
But my little brother hadn’t learned about running away from spankings yet. He ran. He ran while Daddy was still spanking me and my other brother and my sister. He ran all the way around the barn and half way across the field behind the barn. He shouldn’t have done that, because Daddy gave him one swat after another all the way back to the house while they were walking. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think he ever tried that trick again either. I’ll have to ask him sometime.
Photo copyright: dmytroduda / 123RF Stock Photo
Written by Janice D. Green, author of The First Christmas and The Creation.
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I got spanked. A lot. I lied. A lot. And I was hardheaded, so it took a while for me to learn. 🙂 My dad would say, “Go into the living room and pull down your pants.” And I would stand there with my pants around my knees (underwear on) and wait for the sound of my dad pulling his belt off. You’d think I would have learned after one or two times, right? But I didn’t. I took my spankings and never shed a tear. Truth be told, the spankings didn’t bother me nearly as much as being told I disappointed my parents. They didn’t learn that right away, so I stood and got my spankings and kept on lying and getting caught. Yeah, I was a terrible liar. Ha!
Then they realized it wasn’t working and the spankings stopped. Instead, I got lectured while I sobbed and sobbed. THAT changed my behavior and fast!
I’m not against spanking. Some kids need it. Some kids learn from it. But a parent’s job is to find out what discipline works for their child and use that to teach and guide. The key is not taking it too far.
Wow! I didn’t get a lot of spankings, but I remember more than one. This wasn’t my first by any means, but spankings were pretty few and far between. Most of the time they were fully deserved, though I remember one that I felt was unjust. But everyone makes mistakes, and parents are not immune from making them. Overall, I’m thankful for the spankings I received.
My mother was Italian. She swatted me with a wooden spoon on my butt, with my clothes on, one time. After that, she only had to show me the wooden spoon or go towards the drawer where the wooden spoon was kept. I’m not for spanking children. I think there are better methods now.
I remember spanking spoons from when my daughter was young. It was supposed to be better than using your hand because hands were to be used for loving.
I grew up being spanked, and I spanked my own kids. Sometimes a spanking is expedient, especially when a child is being stubbornly defiant–it’s swift, and it’s over.
My daughter tells me she will never spank her kids. I totally support her. The crucial point is to instruct the child in the difference between right and wrong, and impose a consequence when the child does wrong. If you can do it without spanking, more power to you.
I see too many parents who utilize no consequences whatsoever, and their children are out of control, constantly pushing limits, while the parents relax the limits a little bit more: “If you do that again…”
I like your balanced approach. Parents must figure out what works, and it may be different with each child. Parents must be the ones in charge and not the other way around.