Were your parents nuts when you were a kid?

[RedneckReject]

It's come to my attention as I get older (and my kids get older) that I've become the very thing that I said I would never become once I had kids of my own.....,my parents. I grew up in a very strict household (shutup, dumb, stupid, booger, pee, and poop were swear words..."fart" was THE F bomb in my house. It was NEVER said). This evening I was thinking about all the terrible things my parents did to me and realized that I would have probably done the same were I their shoes.


For example, my mother kept a diaper pin in the visor of the car. Whenever one of my sisters or I would act up she would get the pin. And she didn't even care who got stuck. She wouldn't even turn around and look back, she would just stick her arm back and jab away. As long as she got SOMEONE. She eventually took it out because she was so sick of hearing us freak out every time she tried to adjust the visor to block the sun.

Remember those unbreakable plates there were all the rage back in the 70s and 80s? Yeah we were all running in and out of the house one day while our mom was doing dishes and she got sick of it. She threw a stack of about 5 on the floor and shattered every last one. After that she would just lock us out of the house and make us drink out of the hose if we were hot. Have to pee? Ooops, can't say that word. Have to potty? TOO BAD!!!


Another time that I vividly remember is a road trip from our home in east Tennessee to Anderson (yes, Indiana's Anderson) to visit my grandparents. My poor father was so stressed from dealing with 4 kids in a Chevy station wagon for an 8 hour trip that he finally lost it and started belting out "Highway to Hell" at the top of his lungs. If you knew my father you would understand why we were all terrified that he was having a complete breakdown.

On that very same trip we were being incredibly bratty once we got within about 30 minutes of my grandparents' house. They lived right across the street from Mounds State Park and just down the road from there is a place that at one point in time was an orphanage. My sisters and I knew this. Imagine our faces when good old dad pulled the car in, mom got us all out of the car, took us up to the entrance of the building, then got back in the car with our dad and LEFT!!! Yes, of course they came back within a couple minutes but we were terrified.


Did everyone else have crazy sadistic parents or is it just me? And what is wrong with me that I now UNDERSTAND why they acted like this???


On another note, my mother and I are absolute best friends at this point in my life. She was (usually) a fantastic and caring person while I was growing up and our house was filled with love....until we pissed her off.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Man you're crazy

 

[Dirtebiker]

Nope, yours were the only ones!

 

[K_W]

I got it on the rear with a belt from dad... twice.

I got it on the rear with a strainer from mom... once.

The strainer is the one I remember best... What did I do? I unstacked a pile of old rotten firewood looking for cool bugs and I was told not to come in until I restacked it all. I wanted in so I tried to come inside and Mom locked me out. I didn't get the hint so I knocked... too quiet... knocked harder... no use, so I picked up my new aluminum Tee-ball bat and tapped on the storm door. The door didn't like that and the glass shattered... no sooner than when the first shard hit the ground, the door flew open and here came my mother swinging that strainer like a samarui sword... I remember because of the sound it made as the wind whistled through its holes as it sailed towards my rear-end, followe by the crack of contact and the persistant sting for hours afterwards.

Thats the only window I've ever broken.

 

[Lebowski]

If you would have asked me as a kid, I would have said, "Yeah".

Now? Nah, not really.

 

[RedneckReject]

I got it on the rear with a belt from dad... twice.

I got it on the rear with a strainer from mom... once.

The strainer is the one I remember best... What did I do? I unstacked a pile of old rotten firewood looking for cool bugs and I was told not to come in until I restacked it all. I wanted in so I tried to come inside and Mom locked me out. I didn't get the hint so I knocked... too quiet... knocked harder... no use, so I picked up my new aluminum Tee-ball bat and tapped on the storm door. The door didn't like that and the glass shattered... no sooner than when the first shard hit the ground, the door flew open and here came my mother swinging that strainer like a samarui sword... I remember because of the sound it made as the wind whistled through its holes as it sailed towards my rear-end, followe by the crack of contact and the persistant sting for hours afterwards.

Thats the only window I've ever broken.

My mother was a fan of this pink plastic hairbrush. Damn that thing hurt...

 

[Bunnykid68]

I remember this one time looking out the orphanage window and seeing 4 kids get dropped off out front, got excited that we were getting new siblings, but alas, their parents came back for them

 

[RedneckReject]

I remember this one time looking out the orphanage window and seeing 4 kids get dropped off out front, got excited that we were getting new siblings, but alas, their parents came back for them

When they came bacl I did think about asking if one of my sisters could just stay there. Under the circumstance I decided against it

 

[CindyE]

Yes- I had crazy parents! I do have an understanding of why they acted the way they did at times, after having some not-so-proud parenting moments myself, but I learned to mostly just send my kid to her room if I felt like I was losing it! I did not want to be my mother!
This thread brings back memories! We lived not far from the State Hospital and my mom would threaten to send me there. I was the oldest of 3...I remember being in the back of the station wagon and my mom flying over the seat, swinging wildly...lol. Oh yeah, my mom broke a hairbrush on my butt once. My sister and I had this really bad thing about cemeteries, and anything about death. We hated to even drive by one. Once on vacation, my dad stopped at an old church with a graveyard and they unpacked the cooler and we had something to eat. After that, my dad always referred to the cemeteries as "picnic grounds." Mom was usually the crazy one, but when dad got mad...look out! Some funny memories, and some not so funny!

 

[davedolli]

Nope, leave it to Beaver type household for me.


Dave

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

OP:

I know times are/were different... But honestly, to me, that sounds more like abuse than loving discipline. Maybe that's just me. Stabbing/poking with a pin? Seriously? Throwing dishes in a tantrum? Not cool.

In my life: I know there were plenty of times that what I'd done didn't deserve a swat or two...but that balances out quite well with as many times as I didn't get swatted when I probably should have.

A lot changed one day when I told my mom: "You know, just because you have a bad day at work doesn't mean you should take it out on me." I was 6 or 7 when I said that.

-J-

 

[ghuns]

My mother was a fan of this pink plastic hairbrush. Damn that thing hurt...

My mom was like a ninja with a wooden spoon.

 

[churchmouse]

I grew up in a stalag (Sp) concentration camp. My parents had bad days every day it seemed and we bore the brunt of those days. Both were excessive compulsive. One thing out of line and psychotic responses were the norm.
The punishments we received would be considered abuse today and jail time would be the result. Not saying we never deserved to be punished but the punishments far out weighed the rules infractions.
I survived as not everything was terrible but the way I treat my children is far from the way I was raised.

Yeah, My parents were nuts. Literally.

 

[stephen87]

My mom had a wooden paddle she used. WE still have that paddle and my nephews are afraid of that. That and frying pans.

 

[CindyE]

I stabbed my brother in the arm with a safety pin when we were kids. I got in big trouble. We were having lunch and he had a safety pin that he kept lightly sticking my sister and I with when grandma wasn't looking. After several warnings, I grabbed it from him and jabbed it in his arm. Oops. Grandma was always threatening to call our parents when we acted up, but until that day, she never did.

 

[Trigger Time]

I'd get a tattoo of a safety pin!! That's ****ed up man! LOL

 

[Dirtebiker]

My mom had longer arms when we were kids. She could reach from the front seat of the Country Squire all the way to the back well seats without even turning around! (or so it seemed!)

I remember once when we were heading to Dairy Queen and the five of us kids were fighting like we always did, dad said if we didn't stop he would turn around and go back home. Of course we didn't believe him, until he did it!

 

[Redtbird]

I grew up in the 50s & 60s, and things were a LOT DIFFERENT back then in terms of 'discipline'. Neither of my parents believed in "Spare the rod; spoil the child". Did they ever...

Mother was fond of using wooden yardsticks on me; you know, the thin balsa-wood(?) ones given away free at the local paint and wallpaper store. By the time she got done, there was about 11-14 inches left. Somewhere she got another yardstick a few years later, two inches wide and 3/8 inch thick, and made out of soft pine. That is certainly a misnomer because it sure isn't soft. And again, she ended up with just under 18 inches and was still swinging.

Now Dad, didn't use anything but his hand. And he was quite strong. The last time I got a whoopen', I was 13 and went riding my bicycle after supper one evening. I was told to be back by 730 or "else..." Well, I rolled in about 745 and found out what "or else" meant. This time it was a razor strop. Trust me, you DO NOT want to get hit with one of these. For the first two days, I couldn't sit straight, and it took about 2 1/2 weeks for the purple marks on my butt and backs on both thighs to fade completely. Oh yeah... It sure was 'fun' changing into my PE clothes at school looking like that. I don't remember anybody saying anything about the bruises; I imagine they were thinking, "Oh! I am glad that wasn't ME!".

This. Was. Called. Discipline.

With my own kids, I never used anything but a hand on their behinds, and never more than two or three smacks. My daughter, now 35 and has four kids, told me once, it is illegal in Massachusetts for her to spank her children.

@Indy_Guy_77: "... I told my mom: "You know, just because you have a bad day at work doesn't mean you should take it out on me." I was 6 or 7 when I said that.

Wow! If I had said this to either of my parents, I would have... Well, it wouldn't have been very pretty. Not in the least. And, I might not be typing this message.

But, I survived it. And 'thanks' to the razor strop incident, I think I have been early ever since.

 

[CindyE]

We had those yardsticks at our house too, when I was a kid.

 

[MrsGungho]

yard sticks were common in our home. We didn't talk back and if we did, hell to pay. we were taught to respect and showing we learned it, we received it.
My Mother and my older brother got into an argument once when he was in his teens, he broke her finger. I'll never forget that beating when Dad got home.

Indy_Guy_77, if I was to EVER say anything like that to either of my parents, I wouldn't have been able to sit for a week.

I raised my girls not much different than I was raised. my son, not so much. it show's too. I used time out chairs, corners etc. We had loving but firm discussions about why what he did was wrong, I tried everything I could and never laid a hand on him. I was fair and consistent. he walked all over me. I use a paddle now when needed.. it shows too