I can’t really ever recall my parents forcing retraction when I was young, but I’m not sure that they didn’t. I think that either they retracted my foreskin, or I was able to retract my foreskin and did myself from a young age.
I know a lot of people my age who’s parents thought they had to retract their sons foreskin at bath time, I’m not sure if that was upon medical advice from paediatricians or whether it was from a parental book, or from speaking with other parents as word-of-mouth learning.
Some of my friends have said they remember having their foreskin retracted during a bath.
From conversations with friends, I feel like parents who were a circumcised father and/or mother who was the partner of a circumcised father retracted their son’s foreskin at bath time more often than not.
Very different from today when parents are advised to leave it alone, there is no reason to force retraction.
As for whether some parents enjoy causing some pain- yes I definitely think some do. I have one friend who has always had a fairly tight foreskin, still to this day. He has told me that his mother would force his foreskin back in the bath if he refused to do it himself, after making him cry while she was telling him to retract his foreskin.
I remember one time I was at his house for a sleepover and when it came to bath time, she came in and forced him to retract his foreskin in front of me and our other friend who were all bathing together. She did not make any comment or assertion, or touch or attempt to touch anyone other than her son.
I am also fairly sure she enjoyed embarrassing her children in general, as I saw on multiple occasions my friend and his sister being talked down to in public, and being degraded by her.