As a young boy and young girls, being sent by Mom and/or Dad to fetch switches from the apple orchard was pretty traumatic for my sisters and me.
I'm not using the word traumatic in the way millennials and younger generations use it today. We weren't emotionally/physically scarred for life. In fact, we weren't emotionally/physically scarred for a week. In fact, we weren't emotionally scarred at all, but the painful stripes/welts lasted for a few days, during which simply sitting down at your school desk, or in a church pew, or at the kichen/dinng room table was a reminder that naughty misbehavior was not tolerated! But, it was temporarily emotionally traumatic, during the process of fetching a few switches, peeling off the leaves and outer layers of bark, and ultimately having those switches laid across our bare bottoms for as many stripes as were determined necessary.
The switch was the most severe punishment implement, reserved for cases of severe disobedience, disrespect, and dishonesty (more severe than an OTK paddling with the hairbrush-sized paddle, and more severe than a tanning with the leather strap/strop). A thrashing with a switch was often administered for correction of a pattern of (repeated) misbehavior. For example, in the early springtime (during spring break from school), at about the age of 9.y.o., I remember several occasions when I did not come inside for lunch on time because I was having so much fun playing outdoors with my neighborhood friends. The first time this happened, Mom made me clean up the kitchen (dishes, etc), and do some other chores, by myself, without any help from my sisters (which delighted my sisters, of course). For some reason, I did not learn my lesson, and a few days later I found myself on kitchen clean-up duty again, followed by a trip over Mom's lap (shorts and underpants pulled down), for an appointment with her hairbrush-like paddle (the same size and shape as -- or perhaps just slightly larger than -- a traditional wooden hair brush), but simply a paddle (without any bristles). Unfortunately for me, I was again late for lunch the very next day, and Mom yelled at me from our back door... she said, "Johnny, you're late for lunch again! This is three times in less than one week, which calls for some severe discipline! You need to get your ass in here ASAP, Young Man, but I think you need to take the scenic route, through the apple orchard!". I knew what that meant! My sisters and I would start crying immediately upon being sent to the apple orchard!
Upon arriving in the kitchen, with switches in-hand and with tears in my eyes, Mom and my sisters were eating lunch, and Mom said, "Three strikes and you're OUT, Young Man! Strip OUT of clothes, down to your birthday suit, right now, and go stand in the kitchen corner until I finish my lunch." I responded with the only appropriate response, which was, "Yes Ma'am." And, after lunch, she put me over her lap for anther paddling. After the paddling, she had me stand up in front of her and look into her eyes while she said, "A few days ago, the paddle failed to correct your naughty behavior, so apparently the only way to train you effectively is to put some stripes across your already-tender buttocks! Girls, clear the plates off of the kitchen table, quickly. Johnny, hand me the switches that you fetched, and bend yourself over the kitchen table! Make your sorry ass my target at the edge of the table." While standing naked in front of her, with my sisters watching, my penis became fully erect and Mom said, "At least your penis is always very respectful when you are disciplined, standing at attention like a good boy!" (my sisters giggled). Mom knew how to lay some angry stripes across an already red-hot/sore bare bottom! I was not late for lunch again!
When we were older, Dad eventually introduced my sisters and me to the dreaded "river willow switch" (longer and thicker, but still very supple/flexible), which we had to fetch down at the riverbank. If a tanning with Dad's leather strap/strop failed to correct our misbehaviors, a few stripes with a river willow switch, across our already-tanned bare bottoms, always did the trick.
My wife and her siblings were raised receiving very similar/traditional disciplinary punishments, including having to "fetch a switch" when necessary. Now-a-days, my wife and I reserve the switch for those occasions when we, even as adults, deserve a severe punishment. Although we "like" the "Domestic Discipline" lifestyle, because of its many benefits, neither of us actually enjoys administering nor receiving stripes with a switch! But, on those occasions when such strict correction is deemed appropriate/necessary, we reluctantly follow through with our commitments to administer and accept severe discipline.