Did adults use fibs to control your behaviour?

Grandma70s I would guess it was more common in state schools. TBH I didn't know anyone who didn't go to a state school. BTW I'm not saying the use of corporal punishment was regular, just that it was widely used, although some teachers used more than others.

In primary school we never had the ruler on the knuckles, but on the palm of the hand. In secondary school lines and detention were common, especially in England.

I was only given corporal punishment the one time I described before. I don't remember ever getting lines, but I do remember getting detention a couple of times when the teacher gave the whole class detention. I admit I was such a goody goody, but I was also a good pupil and in the top 5 in my year. I think my younger brother got the strap a couple of times in primary school, but I don't think my youngest brother ever had it.

We didn't have corporal punishment at high school, only at primary (ruler on knuckles, ouch). However, there were very strict rules which had to be adhered to even out of school if wearing school uniform ie not eating in the street, wearing one's hat at the correct angle, not talking to boys etc and a system of marks against your name if you broke any rules (or rather, if you were caught breaking rules ). We also had detention and a myriad of lines for misdemeanours. 'Write out 500 times .....'

The school had things like detention as well. It wasn’t a progressive school at all. It was independent, selective and academic.

Wilmaknickersfit: I went to school in northern England in the 1940s and 50s, but it wasn’t a state school. It had no corporal punishment. It was not alone in this. I know it wasn’t legally banned in any school at that time, but some schools (rightly, in my view) thought it uncivilised and didn’t use it. It has taken a long time for society to catch up.

Punishments, if discussion had no effect, were suspension, or, I suppose expulsion. I remember one girl being suspended, but nobody was expelled in my time.

I was fluent in French and German, but kept getting into trouble with midnight feasts!

I had one of those ponies, too. We won many a gymkhana. I can't even spell it, let alone win one!

I always wanted to go as well, one where I could take my (non-existent) pony with me.

I'm quite surprised to hear that so many people were 'threatened' with boarding school. I'm with the Enid Blyton readers and would probably have said "Yes, please!", although I quite fancied the Swiss Chalet boarding school where you spoke a different language on different days!

Grandma70s what part of the UK did you go to school where there was no corporal punishment? It wasn't banned in state schools until 1986 and even later in private schools. This is from Wikipedia

In state-run schools, and in private schools where at least part of the funding came from government, corporal punishment was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1986. In other private schools, it was banned in 1998 (England and Wales), 2000 (Scotland) and 2003 (Northern Ireland). Schools had to keep a record of punishments inflicted, and there are occasional press reports of examples of these "punishment books" having survived.

The implement used in many state and private schools in England and Wales was often a rattan cane, struck either across the student's hands or (especially in the case of teenage boys) the clothed buttocks.

When I left school in 1978 corporal punishment was still used and I went to six schools, all using it. Of course, it's availability doesn't mean it was used, but I haven't come across someone who went to a school where it wasn't used.

Those stories sound scary enough to stop any child from doing naughty things! I don't know that I agree with lying to your children but I'm sure I did it when I was raising mine. It's so difficult not to when you kids just aren't listening and you're at the end of your tether. I was always threatened with being sent to boarding school because I kept sniffing and didn't sit nicely at the table as a little girl! It's funny thinking back to the things I was told to make me behave nicely.

There was absolutely no physical punishment at either my junior or senior schools, only the occasional ruler on the hand at infant age. I’ve never seen a cane.

It was different for boys, though. Canes and heaven knows what else at my brother’s school, and the prefects were allowed to beat the younger boys. My brother’s over 80 now, and still actively loathes that school, although he was never beaten himself.

Vampire queen, it's a wonder you weren't a nervous wreck and scarred for life. There were other ways of stopping you going where you shouldn't, we all do it every day with children, for different things ie electric sockets, stairs, roads, shopping places. My gran told me once that when people died you had to make sure they were not buried alive by cutting their writs. It scared the life out of me, couldn't sleep for weeks, when mom and dad found out they were angrier than I had ever seen them. It got sorted somehow, but despite assurances it had been said, couldn't be undone.

I am shocked by how some of you were treated. The thought of all those lies, not to mention slippers and canes at home just appals me. It’s such a bad example to set to children.

We were treated as reasonable human beings, and I don’t remember ever being punished at home - or at school apart from the once I was hit on the hand with a ruler for not knowing my tables when I was about six or seven. How I despised that teacher.

My brother was more trouble than I was, and my mother admitted to smacking him once or twice can out of sheer desperation. Usually misdemeanours were dealt with by talking and reason. We only had good examples, so on the whole we behaved well.

How upbringings differ.

We kids were threatened with ‘Nine o’clock horses’ if we didn’t go to sleep quick enough

That is so funny! It's sweet too though that your sister asked you to go with her. Bless.

My sister asked me to go along to her school reunion as she didn't want to go alone. All her old school friends said "Ugh! Does your mum still make you take her (me!) everywhere you go?"

See what I mean?!

I was lucky because I was the youngest, Wilma. My mum used to say "She's just a baby! You're old enough to know better" to my sister, whilst I stood behind mum poking my tongue out.

MissA my Mum says she absolutely hated giving us the slipper, but I suspect most of the time she was at the end of her tether with us, so I'm not sure if I believe her! My parents weren't slap happy though, you'd get plenty of warnings. Mum's weakness was my youngest brother. He was a pretty child with big blue eyes and he learned to use those baby blues to get out of getting the slipper. He was such a drama queen and although it used to annoy me and my other little brother, we laugh about it now. It's definitely true that the youngest child gets off with so much more than their older siblings!

Feeling 6 whacks was the most anyone got in my schools, but that was pretty rare. Even 3 was a lot. I think it was common too if someone got the strap at school they'd be punished at home too.

I got the strap once at primary school when I was in P7 (last year at primary). Traditionally the P7 boys of local Catholic and Protestant schools had a fight at the end of term. I went to watch and everyone who was there got the strap. I don't remember how many whacks, 2 or 3. But all the boys got 6. I think only 2 people in the whole class didn't watch the fight and one of them told their Mum there was going to be a fight. I remember thinking it was a pathetic sight. All the boys were wimps really and it was all bravado. A couple of boys had a tussle and jumpers got torn. I did get into big trouble at home though because we all had a letter to give our parents from the headmaster telling them about the punishment. I was very ashamed.

My mum said that she was probably too strict, but we always knew where we stood. There was no doubt that if you did wrong you were going to be punished.

Strap in school - 6 whacks. Slipper at home. If it was found out that I was strapped in school, I got the slipper at home too. Threatened with th orphanage if we looked as if we might be slightly out of line ie late at table, not wanting to eat the tripe for dinner, not polishing shoes properly. Home was like boot camp really. I might have gone too far in the other direction with my DCs. They are lovely people so I must have done something right. It was a different age.

Yes, the threat was usually enough in our house too.

I never realised people had canes at home. I never even saw a real cane until I moved to England at 14.

In schools where I lived it was the belt or the strap. My history teacher in Scotland was a real disciplinarian and wore his belt over his shoulder hidden by his black gown. He could whip it out at the speed of light, slapping it down on to the desk. It scared the living day light out of us. At home it was a hand or the slipper.

My mum was very good at psychological warfare on us children, and were smacked too. She would send us to fetch the cane! I can't actually remember getting hit with it, I think the going to fetch it was enough.

I was another one always threatened with being sent to the children's home - once it was boarding school but I was quite keen on that idea (Mallory Towers & St. Clare's being my favourite books at the time) so she reverted back to the children's home threat. I was such a little goody two shoes though, it's hard to recall what on earth I was going to deserve all those threats!