The way people parent now in comparison to their own upbringings is often wildly different. What was an acceptable form of punishment 20 to 30 years ago might even be considered barbaric and even illegal today. And we’re not just talking about corporal punishment either. Shaming, embarrassing, and frightening children wasn’t off limits just a few decades ago. In fact, it was kind of the norm rather than exception as it seems to be today.
Some traumatized adults took to Reddit to share the most insane punishment they ever received, and quite a few of them are truly shocking.
This person’s mom wanted someone to perform an exorcism.
Saying your child is acting like the devil and taking the child to church to deal with the issue are two very different things.
“My mom dragging me up in front of the entire church to inform everyone that I had the “demon of rebellion” that needed to be exercised from me,” one person shared. “For the record, I was an amazingly well-behaved teenager. I didn’t party, smoke, or drink. My friends were all well-behaved teenagers as well. My rebellion was because my mom would scream at me, so I would naturally yell back. Because that was my example.”
There was lots of physical violence.
Unfortunately, many people were brutally physically abused by their parents.
“Facial slapping, hitting with items, digging nails into me so I would bleed, being grabbed by the shirt and slammed against a wall,” one person shared. “The apologies I would get ‘I’m sorry I did that. But you make me so mad sometimes. You just don’t understand how frustrating you are to live with.’”
Another person shared a similar story that their mother denies.
“God yes, all of this. I thought getting hit with a wooden paddle, beat hard with a belt, and slapped across the face was normal for most of my life. THEN I was blamed for it because I was a bad kid. Not sure which part messed me up more,” the Redditor wrote. “My dad passed away several years ago and my mom denies she ever hit us. I’m NC with her at the moment as I process everything.”
Sadly, some parents didn’t show their kids the love they deserved.
Sometimes all a child needs is love and compassion but the parents don’t understand that.
“No comfort when you’re sad. No hugs, no calming down, nothing – just screaming at you to stop crying for attention. You then just get locked in your room while you scream and sob. No help regulating at all, no matter how young you are,” an adult recalled.
“I work in mental health services and man… so many things would have been different in my life if my parents just hugged me when I was crying, or walked me through strategies to calm down, instead of ignoring and blaming,” the commenter added. “It was an insane childhood punishment because it’s something that affects regulation skills for the rest of your life.”
Some parents found strange ways to hurt their kids.
These parents didn’t hit their children, but they found other ways for them to feel pain.
“Mom made me kneel on rock hard peas for hours in the corner in silence,” one person recalled.
“Our parents did this with dry rice or gravel. I still have scars (I’m in my 40s). Truly horrific people raised us,” someone else added.
Parents even kicked out their kids.
One poor person had a heartbreaking story about being kicked out over a private diary entry.
“When I was 9, I wrote ‘I hate this house’ in my diary. My mom read it and made me sleep outside on the porch in winter. No jacket. No blanket,” the commenter shared. “Just to ‘teach me gratidude’ or whatever. Back then I thought I kinda deserved it. Now I get it I was just a kid tryna feel safe in a place that didn’t feel like home.”
We’ve heard the naysayers claim that gentle parenting doesn’t work and that adults are too soft these days. But from reading these stories, it certainly seems like we’ve come a long way … in the right direction.
