How commonplace is spanking today?

Generations ago spanking enjoyed almost universal cultural acceptance but, in more recent decades, cultural attitudes have shifted pretty hard against it and the prevalence of parents who are fully open and upfront about spanking their kids has declined pretty steadily. Nowadays I assume the vast majority of parents who spank are far more discreet about it in comparison to previous generations. Given the controversy surrounding this practice, I suspect the actual prevalence of spanking is greater than what you might assume given current cultural attitudes. It is entirely possible you may know some spanking parents and not realize that they discipline their kids in this way.

How common do you think spanking actually is now despite its' significantly diminished social acceptability?

Its illegal in Wales

So is doing 20 mph+

I'm not quite sure how common spanking is today in current year. If parents do still spank they aren't vocal about it at all since the cultural shift.

Back in the mid 2000's, When I become a babysitter at the age of 16, a few of the parents I would babysit for were pro bare-bottom spanking. The parents insisted it should be used if deemed necessary as a punishment especially if I were watching their kids alone all day while they were at work, and I did enact it a few times. It was full proper spankings, bare bottom and all, with only my hand, over my knee mostly.

I grew up getting spanked OTK on the bare bottom by my mother when needed. I was a bit of a handful according to her but never got into any serious trouble.

Spankings were never done in anger or frustration on her part and with a great deal of love afterwards and enouragement to do better in the future. I have never spanked our girls vas it is much more effective to take away their I-Pads and/or cell phones away for a period of time. Their misbehavior immediately stops and is carefully aboided in the future. The side effects of getting a consensual spanking that some enjoy, I will leave up to them to discover on their own. I agree spanking seems to be now frowned on and even abusive which it can be if one gets carried away administering one. Denise

I think it’s very uncommon these days. I am ashamed when I think my eldest was spanked once as a toddler when she ran out in front of a car in a shopping centre carpark - a reaction so quick I didn’t realise what was happening until we were both crying and the driver of the car was asking if we were ok.

What is very interesting to me, is that the prevalence of spanking has declined significantly in the past few decades, and there are a lot of adults who were never spanked by their parents. Yet spanking is still a very common kink? I have always thought that kinks and fetishes are born from curiosity and little or big T traumas. I guess there’s more of a curiosity turning to kink for these younger people?

I think it’s very uncommon these days. I am ashamed when I think my eldest was spanked once as a toddler when she ran out in front of a car in a shopping centre carpark - a reaction so quick I didn’t realise what was happening until we were both crying and the driver of the car was asking if we were ok.

@NurseSammy don't beat yourself up for your spanking. Your spanking hurt far less than being hit by a car. Not to mention how long the driver would have remembered having hit your child.

That was my thought when our kids got paddled for being too close to the road, they had a ditch edge as a boundary - don't let me see/catch you beyond that line. I thought of their well being and the mental well being of the drivers on our road. Our kids may have only got close to the road once, saving all of that future pain and agony.

I would not be surprised if it went on, but hidden, as it is less socially accepted than before.

I don't think I've lately seen a parents smacking a child's bottom in public but I've heard threats about what's going to happen at home. But it's not common.

One thing is certain, spanking is prohibited by French law, like all corporal punishment, whether at home or at school.

I think spanking is much less common today, but not extinct. Social pressure has swung towards less physical forms of corection. A quick swat on the butt to prevent a young child from running out in the street isn’t a spanking, it’s an wake-up call.

Not common enough.

I do not have any hard evidence but I believe over the last 30 years, there has been a significant increase in adult spanking. However, I think interest in adult spanking has reached a peak.

It appears to me that spanking children in the US as a form of discipline is far less commonplace than it was--in middle- and upper-class white families. PoC families seem to still employ it, and for many, it's effective or they wouldn't do it.

I'm not saying it's right, but if you talk to parents who are not white, there are plenty who spank their kids when warranted. Acceptance of this method of discipline is cultural.

Fortunately here in the UK, The many child protection laws that have been passed as meant that the spanking of children has thankfully decreased. Any parent that still engages in this activity woud be discovered, arrested and probably charged with illtreating children - I totally agree with this !

It is called child abuse and in most civilized places illegal and comes with serious ramifications. Hitting is wrong unless it is for self-defense or defending another.

Compared to when I was growing in '60s and early'70s America it is far less common nowadays! And much less severe than it was in those days as well! I think even in the mid to late '70s and early to mid '80s the tide slowly started to turn. Although spanking still remained very common and was still supported by many. It was, during the late eighties that attitudes to spanking started to substantially change although it still remained popular with many. This is how, roughly speaking, I remember things anyway. Of course along with changing attitudes new legislation and tighter controls by the authorities - child protection services, etc - made spanking less prevelent also. From the '90s onwards attitudes and laws combined to make spanking even more unfashionable. To the extent that the times in which I grew up in seem almost like 'a foreign land'! This is not a moral or value judgement! Merely a neutral and objective observation!

Spanking was very common for me growing up in the late 50s and early 60s as I was spanked by my mother and her friend when I stayed with her. Always bare bottom with no accounting for my modesty through puberty.

I must admit to spanking my daughter when necessary too.

@NurseSammy Like others have said, I wouldn’t feel too bad about having that sort of automatic reaction to a situation that was that dangerous. I imagine if I had kids I would have done the exact same thing.

What is very interesting to me, is that the prevalence of spanking has declined significantly in the past few decades, and there are a lot of adults who were never spanked by their parents. Yet spanking is still a very common kink?

I think part of this is media. The concept or trope is still prevalent enough and is fresh in the memory of the culture. I’m sure porn also plays a role, even if “mainstream” porn portrayal of spanking isn’t really anything like what you would find on spankingtube. If there is a genetic component to our fetishes then that definitely plays a role as well. People may just know what they want or others may require a trigger. I don’t know how else you’d explain people like me and many others I’ve met who had an extremely visceral reaction to reading the definition of spanking in the dictionary well before we even got spanked or had any concept of the idea.

To me it is no great surprise that there may well be many people, especially younger people, who were never - or at least hardly ever - spanked when growing up, who are into and/or fascinated by spanking. The fact that many of them have no real comprehension of just what a real and properly spanked bottom feels like can only add to the fascination of the spanking fetish scene. I know many adults who were soundly spanked as kids who have no fascination with or interest in spanking at all and our just glad that spankings are no longer part of their lives. For them spankings just bring back memories of pain, fear and humiliation! Younger people who more often than not would not have experienced a real bare bottom blistering and would only think of spanking from a fetishstic point of view come to the spanking scene fresh so to speak with no memories or past experiences to draw on!

Compared to days gone by spanking today is on the endangered species list. I'm guessing most self-styled environmentalists won't be raising funds to keep it from going extinct. That said there are a number of fundamentalist churches who will.

So, this Saturday night across America I'm sure hundreds, if not thousands, of teenage, wifely and a few husband bottoms will be bared and spanked. Still just a fraction of the action of back 100 years ago.

While I do believe spanking is on the decline in a lot of places. I don't believe that spanking in the home is anywhere close to extinct. I think school paddling has decreased dramatically over the last 20 years but even parents who do not want their children paddled by "strangers" at school often support spanking by parents in the home. I think some survey do bear this out as does my anecdotal experiences working in schools. I believe that fathers favor spanking their offspring more than mothers but that spanking does still occur in a good number of home...far less frequently than in the past, often as a "last resort", less severe that previously and very much not spoken about very much publicly. As a school administrator, I often had a parent tell me in a quiet voice that they would take care of a misbehaving child with a spanking when they got (usually) him home and did so in confidence.

@Bad_Princess said

It is called child abuse and in most civilized places illegal and comes with serious ramifications. Hitting is wrong unless it is for self-defense or defending another.

I agree. In Germany and Austria any form of physical violence towards children (your own or others) is illegal and a criminal offence.

The anti spanking movement started, believe it or not, in the 1960s when parents started taking advice from Dr Spock not to spank their children. His advice have changed parents view on spanking.

As an Asian outrculture believe in sparing the rod and spoiling the child. Thought this trend is changing slowly many household still spank their children.

Most of us that were spanked in the 60’s and 70’s grow up respecting our parents and the authorities compared to the adults today.

It is illegal in some states in the US. From talking to younger parents who had to attend parenting classes because of their childs behavior in school, the parenting class taught them how to spank. Taught how to spank. Did they have step by step drawings? i believe spanking is making a comeback

It is illegal in some states in the US. From talking to younger parents who had to attend parenting classes because of their childs behavior in school, the parenting class taught them how to spank. Taught how to spank. Did they have step by step drawings? i believe spanking is making a comeback

Back when I was in junior high, my parents (I do not know or remember why) took "a parenting class". Spanking was not the suggested deterant for misbehavior any more. My younger brothers did not get the spankings me and my sister did. It showed in their younger behavior too.

Apparently it is becoming more commonplace because it was forgotten about for sometime and now the schools are pushing for the parents to control their childs behavior

Apparently it is becoming more commonplace because it was forgotten about for sometime and now the schools are pushing for the parents to control their childs behavior

I read that a school in Missouri has recently looked to re-introduce spanking/paddling. I don’t imagine there will be many more schools or districts following suit though.

@Jane Woo Most of us that were spanked in the 60’s and 70’s grow up respecting our parents and the authorities compared to the adults today.

Most people who weren't spanked back then also grew up respecting parents and the rules of society. Having parents who choose not to dole out physical punishment is in and of itself already a good reason to respect them.

@agracier I believe that the value that our parents put into each of us is more important than being spanked or not.

The right value that is cultivated in us will bring us to respect people and people respecting us.

Each parents will have their own way or opinions of bringing up their children some spank and some don’t. There is no right or wrong answer.

As long as the right values are ingrained into the child that is good enough.

I was spanked and that how my parents do it. As it is in the 70’s it is the spanking good time which was common to be spanked and that was how I was brought up.

Now the times have changed so to each its own. As long as the right values are there.