The way that we parent today is much different than our parents had parented "back in the day." And, it's for sure different than how our grandparents raised our own parents, too. As time has progressed, reprimanding kids has taken a turn from the "harsh" to the soft and understanding.
Some may say parents are pushovers today, but, others may say our parents were a bit too crazy.
"I can still remember the only time as a kid I backtalked to my mom. We were in a shopping mall and because she didn't hear something I said, I told her 'what are you, deaf?'
The result was that she immediately, without saying a word, took me back to the car, drove me home, put me in my room and left again," shared alexisnothere.
polylemma shared that for any kind of petulant behavior, like slamming a door, you had to repeat the action like 20 times. If you missed count, you had to start back from 0. She said it was "effective" because, by the time you slammed the door 20 times, you realize how stupid it was.
"My mom made me a electrical engineer by the time I was 10 because she would cut the wires to our game systems and toys. We rewired our Nintendo so many times that the ac cord was less than a foot long," shared a Reddit user.
One Reddit user shared his dad was a drinker, and at first it was spanking, which turned into belt whips, which turned into throwing things. But, eventually, it became padlocking kids in the cupboard downstairs in the basement.
"I used to slam my bedroom door to show just how mad I was. My mom warned me that if I kept that up, I'd lose the door… Needless to say, preteen me tested that boundary. Mom came to my room with a screwdriver, took the hinges off the frame, and that was the end to my privacy for about 6 months," said JimmerGirl.
c1992 shared that whenever he got a bad grade on a test, especially in math which he was not great at, his mom would tape it up to the front door of their house. So, everyone in the neighborhood would see his bad test grade.
"Mexican parents, lots of cursing and spanking. Dad with the belt and mom with the chancla or whatever she could get her hands on in short notice. You guys ever see the George Lopez special were he talks about Mexican punishment towards children, it's hilarious but VERY accurate," shared mr_narbig.
Linnt said that one time he yelled at his mother and his dad picked him up, put him over his shoulder, and placed him under the deck of their house outside. It was 40 degrees out and it was raining, but he left him there for 30 minutes. He said he learned his lesson and never yelled at her again.
"I wrote apology letters to whomever I had done wrong. If I didn't write it correctly, with what I did and how I'm going to correct my behavior, my mother would throw it away and tell me to start again," said PleasurespikedWpain.
utbsball said his mom used hot sauce as a punishment. Whenever they did something wrong, she would grab the hottest sauce that she could find and put it on his tongue, especially if he used profanity.
"My mother and her brother would get in arguments all the time and insult each other as kids. I guess one day their parents had enough of it so they ripped their shirts off, covered their backs with oil and salt and forced them to lick it all off no matter how disgusting and humiliating it was. Till this day, they no longer fight with each other," said andinooo.
One Reddit user said if they didn't eat or finish their dinner, it went in the fridge and they were not allowed to eat anything else in the house until they ate that leftover dinner. Even if they tried to sneak and throw it out, their mom would take it out of the trash and put it back in the fridge.
"Not talking to me and encouraging other family members to join in the silent treatment - it went on for weeks and is still occurring with a few of them into adulthood," shared another Reddit user.
Jack_Cade shared that his parents went after him and his brother's wallets. When they did things wrong, it would cost them. "First time is $4, next is $8, next is $16, next $32, next $64, etc.," he said.
"I would have to stand in the corner on my knees in the living room where the TV was. I had to have my nose in the corner and hearing TV and not being able to see what was on as a child was tortuous," said unikcycle.
