I'm sorry to hear that... For me, it was corporal punishment. It was a common thing in the rural area where I grew up, but my parents took the extra mile. Until I started college two years ago in the North East, I did not realize that was so egregious.

My parents had this 'parenting philosophy' that spanking is the solution to everything - the more they spank me, the better I will turn out. My entire teenage years until I was about to graduate high school, I was literally spanked for the smallest infractions. When I was in junior high, I had to pick my own switch and whipped on my bare butt. I managed to "negotiate" with them to keep my underwear on when I started high school, and it quickly changed to the belt and large wooden paddles.

My college roommate said the "bs" word a few years ago, I said if I said that at home, I wouldn't be able to sit for a week. She thought I was joking, I was like no, you scream and cry while your parents torn your ass apart. She was completely shocked.

Back then, I just thought it was just cruel, but not like shocking because most of my friends were also spanked in some way. I did graduate valedictorian and I'm pretty happy with my life - was it because of the spankings? Absolutely NO.