Thread: Spanking strops

I was reading an interview with Lynn Abrams on the SEMISSOURIAN and he talked about spanking kids with a strop back in the day. I grew up getting my hide tanned quite often (my mom carried a wooden spoon everywhere!!!) so I am a believer in spanking. What is your preferred spanking strop? Maybe a Latigo? A paddle strop when you mean business? I may either go with the modular paddle so I can keep it fresh for my kids... A CROX covered butt won't easily be forgotten or a kangaroo. Kangaroo says I love you enough to pay top dollar on your punishment. By the way does this make strop purchases a tax write off for rearing your kids?

I prefer the diamond sprays in 2 to 4 Microns. It doesn't remove much skin, and you can polish up your work with a few swats with a separate paddle loaded with 1 Micron diamond spray. It leaves a nice rash that serves as a reminder whenever your child sits for a while.

Those were different times, with different standards. While certainly I remember my grandmother sending us cousins off to get a switch, which she was not afraid to deploy, and I got some spankings as a child, I don't think spanking ought to be a parenting tool beyond the occasional swat on the rear end of a little one when you can't get their attention otherwise.

My experience that it wasn't really a deterrent, as children's brains don't think of consequences much before they commit whatever offense it is they have in mind. And as someone who has taught thousands of teenagers, I can tell you that long-repressed childhood rage can be a dangerous and destructive force.

Personally, I think someone who would seriously lay into bare flesh with a leather strop is guilty of child abuse. All old-fashioned notions notwithstanding, I have known many screwed-up kids and adults that were not spared the rod, and many well-adjusted ones who were. I'm just sayin.'


edit: Speaking of other old customs that have (thankfully) fallen out of favor, my mom and many others smoked during pregnancy because docs back then (mid-60's) said it would calm her nerves. A woman who does that now would be shamed as a pariah. Oh, and we rode around without seat belts too. Some things belong in the past because we now know better. Sorry if that sounded preachy and self-righteous. Aaron

Growing up there was corporal punishment at home, in grades 1 to 8 in grade school and none in grades 9-13 in high school. I would say it was definitely not at the level of child abuse and taught you that there were consequences following from serious thoughtless and wrongful actions. It did not happen for just any misdeed but for what were considered serious ones of which there were few. My wife grew up in the same kind of setting. Neither she nor I became a bitter and twisted adult because of that type of up bringing.

Bob

Corporal punishment wasn't unknown in my family, either, but spankings were few and far between. Of course, I was such an that I only witnessed such things.

Seriously, Grandma was of the, "Boy, go cut me a switch" generation. But mom preferred my Grandpa's old strops. Gramps was a barber, so strops weren't hard to come by. As both women put it, "I'll be if I'm gonna hurt my hand!"

Although I don't think that my siblings or I were harmed, my kids typically got only a stern dressing down, a swat to the butt, and a, "Go to your room!".

I bought an old strop probably 20 years ago, just because I thought it would look cool hanging in the bathroom. Threatened the children with it a couple or three times, it disappeared soon after, and I mean GONE, has never been seen since. To this day, none of them have owned up.

I think a big thing is don't spank in anger. I think spanking is a good short term solution but long term is for sure a different MO. I don't have kids so honestly my opinions mean less than jack on the subject, but I have worked extensively with troubled teens in a RTC. Mostly this was a post to fool around hear funny stories of whooping and maybe an imaginative strop set up to paddle your kids. When I was a boy my father let me pick the belt. My first go through I picked the smallest belt I could being a genius..... I learned a lot about surface area, wind resistance and force in the first second. Needless to say I chose the widest belt I could find from then on and feared the phrase " Assume the position"

Originally Posted by Grazor

I bought an old strop probably 20 years ago, just because I thought it would look cool hanging in the bathroom. Threatened the children with it a couple or three times, it disappeared soon after, and I mean GONE, has never been seen since. To this day, none of them have owned up.

Hahaha you reminded me of another funny story. My dad took to dowel rods for a while as switches and he would place them on the frame over a double door. I would take them, break them, and hide them under the basement sofa. When my stash was found I said I had broken them while playing swords with a friend.

Originally Posted by Grazor

I bought an old strop probably 20 years ago, just because I thought it would look cool hanging in the bathroom. Threatened the children with it a couple or three times, it disappeared soon after, and I mean GONE, has never been seen since. To this day, none of them have owned up.

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Originally Posted by BobH

Growing up there was corporal punishment at home, in grades 1 to 8 in grade school and none in grades 9-13 in high school. I would say it was definitely not at the level of child abuse and taught you that there were consequences following from serious thoughtless and wrongful actions. It did not happen for just any misdeed but for what were considered serious ones of which there were few. My wife grew up in the same kind of setting. Neither she nor I became a bitter and twisted adult because of that type of up bringing.

Bob

Maybe we mean different things by corporal punishment; I think we can all agree that there is a line somewhere between a garden-variety "whuppin'" and an outright abusive beating (which is certainly something a razor strop could deliver with not much effort). In any case, there are so many intangible variables involved in the final result of a child's upbringing that it is often hard to connect the finished product with any causation. I teach mostly seniors, and so have the opportunity to see it first-hand: the kid from a tragic background of abuse, poverty and neglect who grows up to be an exemplary human being. Or its opposite-the kid with excellent parents who did everything right, and the kid goes off the deep end, sometimes with shattering, even fatal consequences. I know today's youth take (and often earn) a reputation as lazy and entitled. But honestly, any more would amaze even the most jaded heart with their good-hearted, selfless civic-minded ness and work ethic. Unlike most people my age, I have found most of today's youth to be far superior in nearly every way to the kids I grew up with in the 70's.

I'm sorry to have taken a light-hearted, potentially humorous thread about the old days (one of my favorite topics, believe it or not), and derailed it. I have just learned a lot in 18 years as a teacher, and I think there's a lot t be optimistic about with the millennial generation-they're not all spoiled brats even though most of them couldn't tell you what a razor strop is (though I video'd a stropping demo for my creative writing students when they were reading a short story about a str8 shave, so I'm trying to do my part). Thanks for your indulgence, gentlemen.