I was spanked by both of my parents, always over their knee, with their hand, and on the seat of my pants. My mom always gave spankings in a private place, and dad always spanked in the living room, sometimes with family members present. When I was 18, dad took me and my 3 siblings to the living room, to spank all 4 of us. I was first to be spanked, so I went over dad’s knee and he gave me 6 hard spanks. That was enough, as dad spanked hard and 6 spanks brought me to tears. After my spanking, dad said “next”, and I watched as he spanked my 3 siblings and they all cried. A few months later, 2 days past my 19th birthday, my mom gave me my last spanking, for breaking her rule, “you hitchhike, I spank”! Pretty clear, but my first semester in college I hitched several rides for the first time ever. I went home for Christmas break, and mom knew I had hitchhiked. When she asked me if I had in fact hitchhiked, I told the truth and admitted I had. Mom then told me “you know what happens when a naughty boy hitchhikes, I spank”, no matter your age..Mom sat down, patted her lap and said “over you go, young man.” Without any discussion, I went over my mom’s lap. at age 19, and received 20 hard spanks. After mom spanked me, I never hitched another ride. I learned my lesson with just one spanking! At our annual New Year's Eve party, we had a bunch of people spending the night, so my mom and I had to sleep in my sister's room. Well, I forgot that, and went into my room at around 4 a.m. and kissed someone on the cheek who I thought was my mom and said goodnight. That's when I realized I was in my room and was kissing one of my mom's friends who was a complete stranger to me! Of course she had to tell everyone when she woke up the next day! How embarrassing!" To Corrine J.-When i made my First Holy Communion at age 11,my parish required all of us girls to wear rubberpants and an under shirt under our poofy communion dresses.Even tho mom got the toddler extra large size,they fit me snug and the elastic leg openings dug into my leg joints and i didnt like having to wear them! When i was 14,i started getting into trouble and mom would make me put the rubberpants on before my spanking and then lay over dads lap and he would spank me hard with his hand! Like you,the rubberpants made the pain worse and i also had to wear them for the rest of the day!

Despite that drastic punishment, one student’s mother, Jerusalem J. Greer, applauded her son and the other students at Greenbrier Public School for their defiant protest following the deadly shooting that killed 15 students and two adults at Stoneman Douglas High School last month in Parkland, Florida. Adolescents who have experienced corporal punishment show higher levels of depression and feelings of hopelessness (DuRant et al., 1994). I am very glad your newspaper has brought into the realm of discussion the above subject. I am headmistress of a school, in which there are 175 girls from 8 to 19 years, and I find it necessary to spank on the bare seat for disobedience. Last term I caned a girl of 19 years for giving trouble, and I must say it did her good. How is it brutal to punish in that way? If I hit the girls on the head, or continually nagged at them, I should be the victim of criticism. Your correspondent, "Parent," is very reasonable in her remarks. No amount of criticism will restrain me from inflicting capital [sic] punishment in the way I have done. I detest using the lash, but I have no other alternative.Love Irish history? Share your favorite stories with other history buffs in the IrishCentral History Facebook group. Dublin Evening Mail, 12 August 1937, "Letters to the Editor - Spanking": Perhaps "M.C." of Athy, now that he (or she) has had time to calm down, will tell us where the "brutality" in giving a good strapping to a girl of 17 who is disobedient and undisciplined comes in. There is no healthy-minded girl who will be one bit the worst of being stripped and flogged when she deserves it; and many parents would be very glad to find this practice substituted for the eternal nagging that makes life bitter and intolerable in some boarding schools.

My son is very kind hearted, but he's very talkative," Howard explained. "He loves to be the life of the party —loves to get a laugh. He's 'Mr. Personality.'" "My son is very kind hearted, but he's very talkative," Brad Howard, 53, said of his 17-year-old son, Bradley. However, despite my commitment, I spanked my children on occasion, when they were younger. I defaulted to an automatic response. Anger, my anger took over. I reacted in a physical way. Then I broke the cycle. I saw the truth and my eyes were opened. My second son was six at the time, and he impulsively, instinctively went to retrieve a ball that rolled into an area that was off limits. Yes, he did something wrong. But it scares me that my reaction in that moment, I became my dad. I was my dad. I hauled my son off and screamed my guts out, but when in a split second I captured the fear in his eyes of what I was about to do I suddenly realized I was my dad. The bad side. The out of control raging maniac venting anger. hour ago Reflecting on the Extreme Differences Between Righteous Protest and Terrorism and the Points Between Raping, torturing, maiming, killing, and kidnapping are not in any realm of “protest”!

In April 1963, for example, an Atlantic City judge sentenced three teenage boys to a public spanking after they admitted to larceny and receiving stolen goods. Interestingly, even now as an adult, if someone tells me to “Shut Up” in a stern voice, even if they are kidding around, I get a funny feeling in my gut that’s equivalent to someone slicing my belly wide open with a fileting knife. Those words bring up two feelings immediately; anger and rejection. Guess some stuff stays with us no matter how much therapy we have or how much forgiveness we have granted. Anyone who has had any experience of children, knows that the only way to deal with a refractory girl (no matter how old she is) is by a sound spanking. I have seen my own sisters beaten by every form of appliance from a hair-brush to a cane, and always resulting in their benefit.” - Letter to Dublin Evening Mail, August 1937. I grew up in the fifties and sixties, a time when life was simpler and we were all pretty innocent, perhaps even naive. My family of four was no exception, try thinking of the families in the movie, “Pleasantville”. Yep, that was us.

My dad and mom, themselves raised in volatile and violent homes — unfortunately perpetuated the cycle, physically and emotionally — disciplining the way they knew. In our house corporal punishment ruled the day. Spankings were routine, in my case far too frequent occurrences, and were delivered harshly and angrily, volcanic outbursts of parental frustrations. My childhood memories are happy ones despite being aggressively spanked and often feeling very frightened of my Dad. I loved him. He wasn’t perfect and neither was Mom. They were doing and living what they had each learned growing up in their homes when they were children. If you are a young parent reading this, please know that the expression “Children Live What They Learn” is a huge truth and that is why I chose to share these painful memories of mine. If you too, were abused in any way, you can stop the cycle. Get help through your church or religious organization, see a good therapist, take an anger management class, join a support group. Do something healing for yourself and in the end, for your own children. The school’s assistant principal, Brett Meek, hung up the phone when The Daily Beast reached out for comment on the school’s regulations. The school’s superintendent, Scott Spainhour, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.I believe that corporal punishment has no place in schools, even if it wasn’t painful to me. The idea that violence should be used against someone who was protesting violence as a means to discipline them is appalling. I hope that this is changed, in Greenbrier, and across the country. I just returned from Blogher. This annual writing conference ,focusing on women's contribution to the web, took place in San Francisco. I had a blast. I adored the panels, networking and the free corporate swag, but the highlight of the trip was hanging out with the girls.

We have pioneered the largest worldwide conversation about what it means to be a good man in the 21st century. Yes, there was certainly much good in my childhood, No one can say my two parents didn’t try. I love them. We had essentials like shelter, food, clothing. My dad worked hard to provide, sometimes working multiple jobs and traveling for work. Mom was a homemaker and supplemented my dad’s income by babysitting, freelance writing, even sewing for others. Dad and Mom valued education and maintained high expectations for their children. No-nonsense South Jersey municipal judges administered law as they saw fit during the 1950s and '60s. You need to go up there and make good on your promise," said Denise, waking Brad up early on a Friday morning. "You have to go to school today."I received my punishment during 6th period. The dean-of-students carried it out while the assistant principal witnessed. The punishment was not dealt with malice or cruelty, in fact, I have the utmost respect for all the adults involved. They were merely doing their job as the school board and school policy dictated. The ‘swats’ were not painful or injuring. It was nothing more than a temporary sting on my thighs. The dean-of-students did stress however that not all punishments like this ended this way. I felt compelled to write this blog which is about a very controversial subject, spanking children as a form of discipline. This accounting is to the best of my knowledge, the truth, as retold in parts to me by my older sister and my own childhood memories. I hope it does not portray my Daddy as a child abuser or a monster, he wasn’t and I don’t think of him that way. But the fact remains that at some deeper level, the spankings I endured have definitely impacted me in a negative way. I hope my sharing will convey to other parents to think about and consider the consequences of your actions in your own children’s lives if you should choose to physically or verbally harm them in any way. If I can convince any of you out there to stop spanking and/or verbally abusing your children because of some part of my story, then I will be content. Treat your children well, learn to face and clear your own issues and buried anger, without taking it out on your own kids. Do something healthy and positive, mentally and physically for yourself every day. This was not an easy blog for me to write and share. It took hours and days to make my decision to actually post it. Know that this process moves me further along in my own healing and I thank you for reading it with an open heart and mind. As a parent now of three grown children, I hoped that I allowed my own kids to express their feelings beyond just showing “happiness”, yet one of my children said that was not the case, in their opinion. I just wanted them to experience all the various emotions and learn that as human beings, we float through a array of different feelings throughout each day of our lives. I tried so hard to NOT enforce or act on the negative traits that my parents exhibited when I was growing up! Some of these traits are good and some are not-so-good. I also have always made an effort to not belittle my children with any name calling, not that my parents did that to us but I have heard so many years of other friends stories about growing up being called “stupid”, “dumbell”“fat” and much worse. The words that we say to our children will at some level, live in their hearts and minds forever. Never forget that.