Spanking paddle hanging on the wall.

How common was it for parents to hang a spanking paddle on the wall in the home?

Dont remember it ever hanging on a wall for all to see, (there was one in the hall closet near the enema bag) but Mom carried one in her hand bag. Remember one time my brother and myself were acting up in church during the sermon and Mom got our attention and just opened her purse for us to see the paddle, we suddenly became her angles. Back then she would have paddled our bare backsides in the parking lot for all to see if we had kept it up.

Back in the day {i.e. 50's and 60's} it was common in my neighborhood and my house. There were paddles all over the house. In my room and my brothers rooms we had paddles hanging over our beds. There were paddles in the kitchen, in the den, and living room and the basement. So no matter where you were naughty you would be spanked on the spot with pants and undies around your knees bending over a chair, couch, or Mom's or Step=Dad's lap who had the paddle in hand and using it on your naughty bare bottom as they liked to call it. It brought instant tears to our eyes and an instant change in our attitude.

Hi DST, Your parents were certainly well prepared; a paddle ready and waiting in every room and area of the house, indeed! Ideal for impromptu, on the spot spankings!

Hi Bootboy, I bet just knowing you could get a public spanking was a great incentive to improve your behavior! What era did you grow up in?

One of my good friends in high school once pointed out a razor strap hanging in the closet that was used on him occasionally. He had a sister a couple of years younger than he was who had a great ass. I did imagine her getting the strap. My first girl friend had a similar situation...she pointed out to me a razor strap hanging in a closet in their pantry. Said she hadn't gotten it in a year but her brother had. While in college we played cards with a couple with 3 kids, aged 3 to 11. They had a paddle hanging on the fridge and I saw it used a few times. Finally, as an adult the couple living across the street had 3 kids as well. I was chatting with the guy in their kitchen once when the kids were rowdy. He picked up a paddle from on top of the fridge and held it up. The kids settled right down. Just what I recall on the topic off the top of my head.

To--- simonjohn68 ---------Grew up paddle wise in the 50s-to early 60s

50's and 60's; big spanking era Bootboy.

Great series of recollections, rayme!

Yes. I love recalling them. Rural Oregon in the 50s. Lots of spanking. Bare bottom in PE. Most friends got spanked....often. As did I. Dad usually just used his hand but it was hard as any paddle. He was a manual laborer. Mom used a switch. The paddle has always been my personal favorite.....for others. Our neighbors with a teenaged daughter and two younger boys never spared the paddle. Both mom and dad participated with mom holding the malefactors while dad applied the paddle. Exciting memories.

I was actually one of those kids. It was the early '60's, at about age 9 my dad decided hand spanking weren't as effective as they once were. He brought me to his workshop and picked a suitable plank from the scrap bin. He drew a outline for the handle, clamped the board in a vice and showed me how to use the coping saw. I then used a rasp, sandpaper to refine the shape before painting and shellacking. It hung in my bedroom until I left for college.

As for others, I knew a number of kids whose family had similar practices. Closets, pantries and bedrooms were common places.

A girl I knew in high-school once showed me the strap that hung in the front hall closet that her dad used on her and her brothers. Later when we started going on dates and I came to the house to pick her up. Her father had her tell me what had happened the last time I brought her home late from the date. She told me that she got a whipping with the strap over that sofa. Her father then told me, that if I got her home late again we'd both be over that sofa. I thought he was trying to scare me, but my girlfriend assured me that he would. For both our sakes, she was always home on time.

Hi John Sitter, Great set of recollections! Having to help manufacture the very paddle you were to get spanked with - that is something!

Back in the day {i.e. 50's and 60's} it was common in my neighborhood and my house. There were paddles all over the house. In my room and my brothers rooms we had paddles hanging over our beds. There were paddles in the kitchen, in the den, and living room and the basement.

Good grief. Too much of a good thing perhaps? Parents a bit fixated and hooked on the power of doling out physical punishments ... 😢 😢

At two of the places where we lived growing up, we had a garage where Dad hung his wooden paddle. It hung on a nail on the wall next to the door that led from the house into the garage. It hung there during our teen years and it wasn't any secret to our friends or whoever was in our garage what it was and what it was used for. It was obviously a paddle and none of us would have claimed that we didn't get spanked with it. I remember seeing wooden paddles or leather straps hanging in the garages or even the kitchens of friends when I would be over at their houses and it was a good reminder of what would happen if we got out of line. It was very acceptable for parents to let everyone know that theirs was a paddling or spanking family. That doesn't mean that we didn't tease each other about seeing the paddle and asking when was the last time it had been used on a friend's butt. I remember one friend who was over at my house when I was a teen and we went into the garage to get something. He saw the paddle handing there and immediately started rubbing his butt with both hands to show me that he saw it.

He used that paddle or a leather strap or belt on us once my brothers and I got to be 10 or 11. I don't remember seeing the paddle displayed anywhere where we could see it in the other places where we lived so I guess he may have kept it in our parents' closet. I didn't go looking for it. As the hairbrush that our parents use on us when we were younger, it was on top of the dresser in their bedroom and I guess that our Mom brushed her hair with it, but don't sure that was always true. It wasn't a small hairbrush but it was wood and very effective when used on us. We never had to go get the paddle or hairbrush or belt to be spanked as some parents did. Dad appeared in our bedroom once we got older and had the paddle or strap or belt in his hand. If I was the one about to get it, I never wondered where he got it from.

What is so striking about the past, in comparison with the present day and more recent times generally, is not just the far greater prevalence of spanking as a form of discipline and punishment, but the openness with which parents 'advertised', quite unashamedly, the fact that they spanked their kids, almost with pride one might say! This points, obviously, with the widespread acceptance and indeed social approval accorded to spanking in bygone times! Really enjoyed reading your contribution David!

I went to a catholic school where it hung in the principles office.

My girlfriend in high school (who is now my wife) parents had one that hung on the inside of the cabinet door to their hall linnen closet. It wasn't in plain view but when the closet door was open it was view of anyone in the family room or bedrooms. It was quite obvious what it was intended for.

You are right that spanking was not just accepted then but I would add that not spanking your kids was considered bad parenting. Parents casually talked about spanking with other parents. It was done probably partly to keep us in line because they talked about it in front of adult and kids and partly because it showed that they were good parents who didn't put up with misbehavior. Looking back, it seems to me that many parents were very concerned about maintaining order and discipline in the 60s, 70s and 80s because they felt that society was coming apart. It wasn't, but change was happening too fast for them and they seemed desperate to stop it. Schools were disciplining kids for very minor issues that wouldn't be viewed as problems today. I remember kids getting paddled for having hair that was too long by the standards of those days. Plus, spanking was not considered severe punishment I guess because it was fast and if the teacher, parent or coach got it wrong, then their view was no real harm was done by spanking the innocent. The idea of zero tolerance for misbehavior sounds good to some people, but it can be just an excuse for over-reacting. My parents were the zero tolerance types who spanked my brothers and I often but I don't resent them for it. They thought that they were being good parents and didn't have bad intentions, but they could have done less disciplining and we would have been fine too. There is always a fight between the past and the future.

How common was it for parents to hang a spanking paddle on the wall in the home?

.

Uhhhh, NEVER.

if the teacher, parent or coach got it wrong, then their view was no real harm was done by spanking the innocent.

I'd say on the contrary. Punishing innocent people, be it a child or adult, is often experienced as a hurtful injustice that can be remembered lifelong and depending on circumstances and one's character, breed resentment and an urge for payback.

I had one or two such experiences in school, being punished for I still know not what reason and let me tell you I have never forgotten it and don't think I can get it to my heart to say I still yet, don't despise the people who did it to me.

I consider undeserved punishment, especially the quick and fast kind, just another form of bullying. But then by adults on the young.

How common was it for parents to hang a spanking paddle on the wall in the home?

Uhhhh, NEVER.

I never saw any instance of that either, neither in the US where I grew up nor here in Belgium.

Now maybe I'm just somewhat less observant than other people, but none of my friends ever talked of that being the case in their house either.

Some of the accounts I read here, of paddles hanging on the walls in home, in sheds, locker rooms or wherever, sometimes makes me wonder how many countries the US is actually composed of. Some of the customs are so contrary to each other. And I'm not talking about socioeconomic differences due to different levels of income or education, but by regional differences that are quite striking.

I never got spanked as a child and my uncle's who used to spank their children only used their hand, they thought that paddle or hairbrush is too harsh.

I was born in the late 60's and even tho I was only spanked by my grandfather a couple of times ( the thought of disappointing him mixed with the fear of the threat to heat up my fanny was enough) I can attest to seeing several spankings of friends and cousins .

I had several great aunts and uncles ( older generation) that did indeed keep a paddle hung up in the broom closet or pantry in plain view and if you were to get into enough trouble they would have no reserve using it on their own children as well as their nieces ,nephews or grandchildren and that was not only tolerated but it was expected.

I do think that the era you grew up in , along with economics , religions,and cultures has a lot ( not 100%) to do with discipline techniques . I am of Portuguese and French descent , both very large families and of all my Portuguese relatives I can not remember any of them with the belief of " sparing the rod" . To them you were not a good parent if you didnt discipline your children with a good spanking when " needed" no matter where you were.

My French side , while still most but not all spanked reserved it for most severe offenses and it was more quiet and private .

While both sides were decendents of farmers and neither considered poor and were somewhat educated I had several friends that were much more lets say affluent . And the thought of a spanking seemed almost barbaric to them.

Just goes to show how family dynamics , in so many instances of child rearing can be quite different from household to household and wether or not it is publicy displayed for all to see is not always what you get .

I grew up in what we would today call an upper middle class neighborhood in the 1950s-60s. My school friends were of mixed familiar origins -- some with ties to the early American settlers; others to those arriving from Italy in the first part of the 20th century and still others of eastern European ancestry. The paddle, or razor strop, was visible in many homes and was used without regard to whoever might have been present at the time. I do remember being present with others when one of my classmates suffered the ordeal of the strop and we all knew that it could have been us.

I don't know whether the places that I grew up were unusual in that way compared to other places in the US. I did grow up in a military family and we lived different places at different military bases. Some in the South but not all. Did Southern parents spank more than in other places? No idea because our family never changed its customs based on where we lived and I never saw any less discipline by parents, schools, or whatever depending on where we lived. Where we lived was a mix of military and not military families. They all seemed about the same to me. The times may have had something to do with that too.

Hi Bridgette, Very interesting contribution from the perspective of ethnicity with regard to spanking!

Hi srg rik, I think seeing somebody else receive a spanking, when you yourself have been on the receiving end - whether just once or often - is from an empathetic point of view, very different from witnessing one when you have never got a spanking yourself!

I only remember one friend growing up whose parents had a paddle hanging on the kitchen wall. In school, more than a few teachers had a paddle on public display in their classrooms.

My mom's HEAT FOR THE SEAT paddle always hung on the inside of our kitchen broom closet door. The problem was that there as other stuff in that closet, so the door was open a lot!

We have fine collection of toys in a bedroom closet but one really wonderful paddle that hangs in the kitchen ready for instant use. A few of our friends have actually asked about it and C. calmly replies that it is what they think is and that it hurts like Hell. We have both been on the receiving end for various misdeeds.

Growing up in the 60s, I recall many homes of friends and relatives, where an instrument of correction was hung in a prominent location. Paddles, yardsticks and worn belts were the most common.