A non violent spanking to me would have been preferable to the ridicule I received but it never happened with horrible mom and dad maybe three times usually impulsively and made me laugh. I always liked Dad way more than Mom. He was MUcH nicer to me than my mom and I thought my mother goadrd home and wasean to him in the same way she was to me. No spanking in my house but lots of screaming.
I don't remember much spanking going on at all and I don't think my parents got hit either. Jewish families were never much into spanking. At least not where I lived. And it was so Jewish that I used to ask "Why do you always say that were a minority? Everyone is Jewish!" That impacted probably my whole childhood. Jews work very hard and tend to be high academics so most had no need to hang clothes or not use diaper service or buy really difficult lawnmowers. So I didn't see that, although with my grandmother, she was from the Depression. They had some money but they wouldn't spend it. Lived in a crummy apartment all their lives and they didn't have to. But my grandma was so much like me...things were not important to her.
I did a lot of yelling, too, when my kids were little. Sometimes I'd take the wooden spoon and smack it against something to make a loud noise to scare my kids into smartening-up.
I could have been the richest mother in town, yet I still would have hung clothes from a clothesline and used cloth diapers. Being at home fulltime and doing the mommy thing, anything I did related to being old-fashioned or traditional for the time helped make me feel even more like a mom/homemaker, and that was right up my alley.
I remember babysitting for this one mother that used to always be behind on her housekeeping, and I was always so giving and understanding. She'd tell me, "I have a load of laundry in the washing machine right now, but when it's done can you hang it out on the line for me", and I was all over it. I might have been age 13/14, but knowing I was helping that mom out and just knowing how much she appreciated me, made me feel so grown-up and mature. She always had baskets full of unfolded diapers, too, so I'd fold and stack all of the diapers for her, and when she'd get home she'd give me a great big hug. I truly believe that's why my connection to the past and all things old-fashioned is so strong. It was just a part of who I was.
I remember trying to push one of those old reel mowers. OMG, they were so heavy, all cast iron and steel. I could push it for only a few feet, but the idea of using such a mower today interests me. The exercise alone would be so great, as would the workout pushing such a heavy contraption.
By the way, my dear husband never changed a diaper, nor did my dad.
