Back In The Old Days
When I was a little boy back in the old days, the accepted method of communicating a parents displeasure with a boy was applied directly to his butt. The tools of the trade were belts, switches, razor straps, pretty much whatever was at hand at the time. I always thought that the idea was to get your attention first, then to drive it home with a follow-up two or three hour lecture on the benefits of “being good” thereafter.
I do have to admit that on the hundreds of times I got into trouble my father had my full attention. Well, at least for a few hours.
I wasn’t really a bad kid. It was just that it always seemed like my butt was a belt magnet.
By today’s standards I suppose it could be argued that we were abused children. I would argue that the knowledge and tools available to parents today are much better, although not always any more effective. There are some kids that, no matter what the parents do, will continue to march to their own drums. Case in point…me.
You wouldn’t know it to read some of my ramblings now, probably, that when I was a boy in school I rarely had to work to get fairly good grades. (B’s mostly) The frustration where my parents were concerned was that I didn’t have to work at it, so they couldn’t understand why I didn’t get straight A’s. When they pushed me to get better grades, the harder they pushed the worse my grades got.