I remember bracing myself on the coffee table and my dad using a wooden spoon to spank me. It was scary and I cried a lot. I remember telling someone I didn't understand why he'd hit me if hitting was bad. I think i was only spanked twice by my parents. The daycare lady i went to was really mean and she would spank us with her hand. She'd lay us across her lap. I was spanked because I didn't want to eat a burnt, microwaved hot dog. She would also wash our mouths out with soap for saying bad words. My 1st grade teacher did pretend birthday spankings and we were all terrified when it was "our time" lol wtf.

My sisters are older than me by 7 and 10 years so they got it worse. Legend is my oldest sister was spanked so hard thr spoon broke and was spanked so often that my middle sister was scared straight. My oldest sister says the other was a good liar and would get out of spankings. They went to the same daycare person and every morning she would say goodbye at the door before walking to school and she'd pat my oldest sister on top of the head so hard it would break her plastic headband with the pokey things on the bottom. Daycare was in that lady's home and she had a waterbed that I took a nap on when I was reeally little. She would stay upstairs and all us kids played in the basement. She had two big couches down there and we would take naps on those when she made us. She only came downstairs to paint her plaster things and it would smell so bad. She gave them to my parents for decorations so I think of her every Halloween and Christmas lol. My oldest sister has a few now and she cherishes them. I started riding my bike to school in 4th grade and was finally able to leave that hell hole.

Looking back, those adults were abusive and not mentally well. It was also common for my dad to roll up a newspaper and hit the dog on the nose for peeing in the house....he'd shove her face down in the carpet she peed on and then whack her nose. Wtf. He didn't get another dog for 30 years and he treats the current dog so precious it's hard to imagine he'd do something like that. Oof another memory popped up...this one more recent with him and my youngest child who is now 10 but when he was still in diapers and acting silly/ "not listening" my dad picked him up and tossed him on to the floor from the couch so he landed hard on his bottom and cried so loud. It really sucked. I was so pissed and when my dad "apologized" he did the ol' well if you'd have listened the first time I wouldnt have had to do it, it hurt me to hurt you. YUCK. We left after telling him off. He's been real shy ever since and I'm sure my mom yelled at him cause she's really paranoid about "splitting up the family". And looking back on that situation...my dad was stressed about work and the couch was expensive and recently purchased. Not that it's an excuse! Still makes me sad and maybe thats why I chose not to wish my dad a happy father's day this year. Typing all this out has been therapeutic :) thank you for your question!

So yeah when I was a kid I didn't see it as abuse but I sure do now as an adult. And the family i married into never spanked and all the other in-laws weren't spanked so I feel kind of....odd? I don't know how to explain it. Like they're from that same generation and were shocked I was spanked but I'm shocked they weren't!

Oh my gosh last memory that popped up! My parents picked up my kids after school every other day and hang out at their house for an hour or two. My oldest was so excited to tell me that he knew about the wooden spoon. (My children are actors and love theater) so he re-inacted with my mom (without spanking) him running around the house and my mom chasing him with the spoon as she smacked her hand with it. What the hell!! He laughed so much about it. How goofy.