
Children need to be disciplined but not abused.
When I was a kid, I had my fair share of enduring a variety of punishments.
Being grounded and missing out on an allowance were frequent penalties, while being spanked with a belt was saved for the worst of my rotten behaviors.
When Redditor Thefishman1 asked "What is the worst punishment you received as a kid?," strangers on the internet shared their most traumatizing memories they would soon like to forget.
Some of the responses will leave you convinced that the punishment definitely did not fit the crime.
Intense Spanking
"Got a citation at school for yelling at a bully in middle school. It was a fake one from a cop to scare me."
"Parents took it well and told me to straighten up and to not let people get to me. Dad didn't really seem to mind."
"Few days later I was playing outside with my cousins, dad comes out high on Xanax and goes 'oh yea, that goddam citation come here.'"
"He gets very very very angry and abusive ok Xanax and he would pop several."
"I'm confused because I thought everything was okay, I thought it was over."
"Drags me up stairs makes me pull my pants down. I couldn't sit down without it hurting for a week. Told my mom I was gonna tell someone at school but she said not to. He never touched me again after that but I'll never forget it."
"He also used to destroy everything in the house when he got high. Like literally destroy. Throw TVs out in the yard , knock over sh*t. Mess with my mom. Break sh*t."
Abusive Mother
"One time when I was around 8, my mom said she would help me with my math homework. I don't remember in detail what it was about, but I remember that it was oh so easy for mom, and I just didn't get it. With every 'huh?' from me she got more and more mad, and finally she threw everything to the ground, jumped up, dragged me from my chair, all the while hitting and slapping me. I tried to cover my head and walked backwards until I reached an armchair, she threw me in it and continued her blows until she got tired, then left me there. I hid in my room for a few hours, she started to vacuum outside. That year, we had planned to go to Disneyland Paris for the summer holidays, so I made a little eiffel tower out of legos as a 'make up gift' for making her mad, brought it outside and placed it on the ground. One standard behavior when she was mad was to pretend I didn't exist, so my eiffel tower didn't exist too and she hit it multiple times with the vacuum, shattering it all over the place, sending me in a hurry to clean 'my' mess up to not make her mad again."
No More Electronic Devices
"Senior year, high school. Long story short, I had learning disabilities and due to things changing in the district, those programs us disabled used were very suddenly axed and threw us out into normal classes. Where the teachers couldn't bother to give a quarter of a f'k about us and pretty much all of us started failing, badly."
"My mom, however, saw this as more of a my fault thing, that it was my fault I wasn't adapting. This was right after she met someone new and that someone new was VERY hardline in his parenting and that rubbed off on my mom."
"So as my grades fell, I lost everything dear to me. My laptop, my iPod, my old CD player (that I kept around even when I moved to an iPod), my cell phone. I cobbled together another computer from old 90s parts just so I could manage to still complete essays. That got taken too. My grades plummeted further. I was just managing to barely pass my classes, now I was actually failing them."
"Boom, now my parent(s) took my door away, no more privacy. They also 'took away' my rides to school, as punishment I had to walk to school (which involved me waking up at 5am so I barely slept as I had to stay up until midnight just to keep my head barely above water with the massive amounts of homework I got and no computer to help me get it done faster)."
"When I failed some classes, that resulted in my electives being taken away, so now school was all academic, all the time. No fun allowed, AT ALL."
"I still don't know how I managed to pass and graduate, but it was the most hollow f'king victory I ever got. The constant punishment I took that year wasn't worth it."
"EDIT: for those wondering, I did eventually put this all behind me and I'm fine with my mom now. Her boyfriend had a near death experience and in that moment he regretted all the sh*t he put me through. Some say I'm too easy, but in my eyes it's more energy to hold a grudge than it is to just accept it and move past it, learning from experiences."
– We1tfunk
The Yelling
"It might sound silly, but getting yelled at by my dad. Hes got a short temper and sometimes I felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. Even hearing him yell at my siblings sent me into shakes and tears."
"EDIT: Thanks for all the nice comments and support, and hugs to all of you dealing with similar things. Happily I'm living with good friends and I've cut off contact with my dad, so I'm doing okay."
– mx_tae
Tied To A Chair
"I have no memories from my childhood except for this one. I must have been 8 or 9 but one time, i stayed 15 min in class to help the teacher clean the brushes and tables from the art class. My mom was very particular about not letting us play outside, each day after school we just couldn't be late. As I was helping the teacher in school and not playing with other kids i thought she wouldn't mind but i was sooooo wrong."
"when i came back, the entry of the building was occupied by some drunks so i decided to enter by the north entry to avoid them (i was terrified to even look at them). i ran past some other girls playing and arrived home to find my sister concerned about me 'where were you??? mom is going to kill you!' 'But i'm only 20 min late.'"
"here comes my mom, veins popping out of her face, she starts to yell at me, letting me know that the girls playing told her i was running the other way around from the building and then she tied me. to a chair."
"The rest was kind of blurry but i remember she put harrissa in my mouth (it's a very spicy sauce), she hit me on the stomach and left me alone in her bedroom for until dinner (so about 6 hours)."
"yay"
Consequences Of Wearing A Favorite Shirt
"When I was 4 years old I was supposed to change into a nicer shirt because we were going to my grandma's on Mother's Day. I refused to change because it was my favorite shirt and my mom lost it and stripped me buck naked."
"She dragged me into the car like that with my siblings laughing at me. When we got to my grandma's house she paraded me out in front of the neighbors and I was so hysterical by the time we got inside that I wet myself all over my grandma's carpet. I got yelled at even more."
"It's a really awful memory that sticks with me even now."
The Quarter
"My parents weren't particularly punishing, in fact my dad has frequently lamented their decision to not spank us. The one really d*ckish punishment they used was to make us stand in front of the wall while my dad pulled a quarter out of his pocket. He placed it against the wall and we would have to hold it in place with our noses for a set time. If it fell, he'd replace the coin with a smaller one and start the time over again."
The Shovel
"I refused to clean my room so my mom got out a shovel and anything that was on the floor was shoveled into a big black garbage bag and thrown away."
Taste Of Soap
"Physically having my mouth washed out with soap for blurting out the F word. I don't think I had even started school yet, (uk), so who knows if I really knew what I was saying."
"I can still taste the soap now 🤢"
Scared Of Dad
"One evening, I went to my friend's house (which was directly opposite to mine) to play. Both of us ended up watching a movie and only when it ended did I realize that it was 15 minutes past my 'curfew time.'"
"My father was already waiting for me at the door when I left my friend's house. When we entered my house, he caught hold of me and smacked me across my face. The impact was strong enough to send me flying back against the wall. He grabbed me and slapped me again. By the time he was done, I had already pissed my pants twice (I was six)."
"I was always afraid of him after that."
Food
"Forced to eat food I absolutely despised until I vomit. My mother never believed I hated certain food and they make me absolutely ill."
"From the age of 8 till I was 12. Then when I started cooking because she was working, I made sure twice a week to make things she hated just to force her to make her own meals."
Belts And Spoons
"My parents were fond of physical abuse, dad preferred belts, mom liked wooden spoons. The stuff that really got to me though was the verbal and psychological stuff. Worst was taking the door to my room. I suddenly didn't have even a trace of safety at home anymore. I still have nightmares about it."
– KirinG
Stove Burns
"Ye old hand on stove was my nightmare, still got rings on my hands from the scars. It's pretty common, I've met lots of people with the same burns."
Combat Boots
"I wouldn't salute so I was punched in the sternum and while laying on the ground trying to catch my breath I was kicked with combat boots until I was coughing up blood."
"Dont ask why this happened. I dont remember. I do remember realizing that this was probably not normal."

Why do bullies bully? More importantly... how do we get bullies to back off?
Can we just use words? Does it always have to resort to violence?
There is no reason in this world for anyone to be a bully. It's all about power and self worth.
The bully has none and it's all they want.
RedditorYaboi2tallwanted to hear about how bullies can be stopped.
"How did you get a high school bully to never mess with you again?"
I swung on my bully, with a pencil. Never had an issue again.
Pea Soup?
"Vomited all over him. After that he never messed with me again."
Linklee2
TRAUMA
"A group of sociopaths from my school that always tormented us followed me and my friends to my house one day in a pick up truck. They stole my friends shoes, pushed one of them until she fell, and took my sketchpad and threw it in a puddle. My stepbrother came outside, beat one of them badly, stole his pants, and threw his keys into a sewer grave before hitting him with an empty vodka bottle. It was traumatizing for me on both ends, but that group of kids never even looked at us again."
LittleKaty_E
"Watch it!"
"He tried to shove me down an embankment while on a field trip. Had I fallen, I would have broken my leg or worse, because the embankment ended about 25 feet down, then dropped off into some deep brush and trees. Anyhow, my best friend was next to me, and said 'Watch it!' as he came at me."
"I side-stepped him, and he tumbled down the embankment and over the edge into the brush. Fractured several ribs, dislocated his shoulder and broke his ankle. He never did anything to me again. F**k you Darren! You b**ch!"
Darklord_Bravo
Trash
"She told me, my face made her want to kill herself. So I told the school counselor that she had confided in me she wanted to kill herself. She had to explain to the everyone what she really said. She would call me fat, and ugly everyday. She also would tell me I was trash because I was adopted. 'Your own mother thought you were so ugly she didn't want you.'"
JustJessJ_Art
Think Twice
"Made friends in the football team. Bullies think twice when you are buddies with a 6'2 250 pound Samoan. Crazy how nice so many Samoans are."
Large-Statistician-3
I do like Football players. I knew they'd good for something.
Wheeled
"I was bullied for my wheelchair, so I ran their feet over."
puthypanther
"Fast and furious."
Sigmr
The End
"A bully was harassing my daughter on the bus. Instead of calling his folks, or jumping on him, I did this…"
"I pulled him aside at the bus stop one day and asked for his help. “Hey Danny. I was hoping you could help me out. I guess there’s a kid on the bus who is picking on my daughter. She’s a girl and small and I’d like for you to help protect her. If you see anything like that, could you stick up for her please and let me know about it.'" That was the end of the bullying."
Relax-Enjoy
Farewell
"Graduated."
Bjarki56
"Pretty much the same. Stopped associating with our mutual friends when I realized they're not my friends if they're friends with a bully like this person and ever since we graduated, and I've been out of that social bubble, it's just was over."
Independent-Clerk310
My Chair
"Not a bully per se, but a d**k." In my French class a guy who sat behind me would always kick my chair repeatedly, and I was at the point where I was visibly infuriated by this happening every lesson. The girl who sat next to me turned to him and said 'Hey, you should probably stop doing that, he looks like he's about to hit you.'"
"Guy laughed it off and said I wouldn't. I didn't, but I turned around and cocked my arm back. He was leaning back on the hind legs of his chair with his feet on mine, so when I did this, he flinched, fell backwards off his chair, and got a few laughs from the people behind us. He never kicked my chair after that."
Pm_me_yo_nudes_
Duel
"Challenged him to a fight at lunch, left during the period before lunch to move 800 miles away."
undercoverhippie
Sometimes all it takes is one good punch. Not that I'm advocating violence. But most bullies are just cowards.
As much as we love to have eyes for others, those eyes are witness to some yuck.
We are easily turned on by many things and people.
We're humans, humans are easy.
But turning off and shutting down is also easy.
And once we see certain things, they can never be unseen.
And so... we move on.
Let's make a list so people stay vigilant.
Redditorfiginjosejospewanted to hear about what makes us yell a big NO for some things.
"What is your biggest turn off?"
I am easily turned off. It's my one flaw. Anything can do it. Alas...
Bad Sniffs
"When people smell bad. Hygiene is important."
ccherry124
Better
"One-uppers. Whatever you have done/seen or place you have gone, they have done it better."
UgliestDisability
"I struggle with this SO BADLY. I hear someone’s story and think 'I can relate! I’ve done XYZ' and tell the story. As soon as I see their facial expressions change I know they’ve taken it as me one upping. It’s so hard for me to relate without telling the story WHY I relate."
notanaltaccount88
Be Straight
"Deception. Say what you freaking mean, and your actions must match your words."
armywalrus
"I don't know if this counts as deception but I have the hardest time verbalizing my thoughts in the way that I think them. So I say something that doesn't match my thoughts but it's like theres a disconnect in my brain that doesn't let me say what I want to say. I've had multiple tbi's from a young age but I don't know if that has any to do with it."
potato-san
Just Listen
"When they constantly cut you off during a conversation."
Exact_Mammoth6874
"I noticed my bad habit of interrupting when I started dating my partner. I worked on it because it bothered him so much. Now when I'm around my family who I don't see often, I'm keenly aware of how bad we all are at it. Dinners, drinks, video calls are a literal cacophony of people talking over each other and having to repeat yourself because no one listens."
helenmaryskata
Over time...
"Entitlement."
Hercdajerk35
"Having been on this earth almost six decades, I can say this has definitely gotten worse over time. Now, you can see it getting worse by the year."
Cautious-Damage7575
I hate entitled people. Nobody is owed anything.
That's all...
"When a person is rude or just behaves poorly and everyone around them says, 'that's just how he/she is.' No. There is no excuse for piss poor behavior."
Sarahkm90
Be Prudent
"Over sharing at social media."
naniyamanaki
"I had an ex who would straight up get pissed if I didn’t post about us on instagram or facebook back when I had it. Even if we just hung out and did nothing Lol. She got even more upset if I did post something and not include her... or if I got more likes than her."
AskinggAlesana
"Social media has completely ruined our brains… it’s so sad to realize the damage that’s been done in such a short amount of time."
e-commerceguy
Trash
"Littering. I absolutely hate it when people litter just because 'there is no trashcan close' or 'Yeah, but everything here is anyway already dirty.' That makes me so annoyed and just ugh. I can understand that it's annoying to keep on holding onto trash but like... It's not that difficult."
TheWanderingLich
Lips Together
"Open mouth chewer. Or any kind of lip smacking while eating."
welshegg
"At a family reunion, I got seated in front of a woman I hadn't met before. Food gets there and we started loading ourselves up. I still remember what we had: tostadas."
"They're a flat baked or fried tortilla topped with pretty much whichever ingredients you want. Usually meat, some veg, cheese, cream, and salsa. This is relevant because half of that food ended up smeared on her face. I have never seen a grown a** adult eat like that. Open mouth chewing, with food actually spilling out as she ate."
"Loud, boisterous talking and laughing, with more, half chewed food spilling out everywhere. And napkins seemed to not be a thing for her because she never used one, making all the cream and salsa get stuck to her lips and cheeks. I was freaking disgusted, as was everyone around her. That was not a pleasant meal."
Ihlita
Hang Up
"Using phones every time we hang out."
mortally_guarded
"My wife has a friend that if you aren’t talking to her about only her, she zones out and just stares at her phone."
mofoofinvention
When the turn is off. It's off. And that's all.
When trying to eat healthy you have to do research.
We have to be vigilant and read the labels.
Just because it says "healthy"... that means nothing.
That was just years of gaslighting.
Also, just because it says "diet" you can't have 10 of them.
RedditorJoltyJobwanted to dissect what's on the menu.
"What food do most people think is healthy but is actually unhealthy?"
I love fruit. But... some fruits are just sugar. Now they tell us.
No Juice
"Jamba juice."
versionii
"Can confirm this. I used to work there and most of the smoothies on the menu are made with frozen juice concentrate which was just liquid processed sugar and multiple scoops of sherbet. Not sorbet. Sherbet."
Coconut_Less
Nudes
"Naked smoothies/juices and flavored yogurt."
blaynevee
"Looking through the various yogurt's nutritional information while trying to find a good High-protein Greek Yogurt recently was very eye-opening. The majority of them were pretty much just softer ice cream."
mordahl
Not Free
"Some people think 'Gluten Free' means 'healthy.' Not automatically, it doesn't. This is NOT about people who MUST follow a GF diet."
notthesedays
"As someone with celiac disease it’s astounding how often I have to explain this to people. Gluten free diets are no healthier than regular diets. Gluten is just a single protein being omitted from your diet. The difference is you’re probably eating way less bread, or you’re just generally more anxious about eating so you might lose weight as a result."
Willow5331
Less Fat?
"I'm shocked how many moms think Nutella is better than peanut butter."
I-amthegump
"When it first came out in Australia they advertised it 'less fat than peanut butter' and 'less sugar than jam' so that sounds great..."
"Until you think about it, peanut butter is high in fat but low in sugar and jam is high in sugar and low in fat. So of course Nutella has less fat than peanut butter, it's got to make room for all the added sugar. And of course it has less sugar than jam, it's gotta make room for all that palm oil."
Azzulah
Same for apples...
"Granola bars. They're chocolate, oats and sugar for the most part. Oats can be healthy by themselves. But a granola bar is unhealthy due to all the sugar, chocolate and stuff along with them. Same for apples. Apples are healthy, apple pie, not healthy."
SinisterMeatball
The truth about granola bars has been out there forever. Beware...
Bad Products
"Cereal."
Confident-Laugh138
"That's because when I was kid the food pyramid posters were printed by the American grain council. They said we needed a couple of servings of both meat and vegetables and like 9 servings of bread and various grain products."
RUfuqingkiddingme
Sugar No!
"Juice. Most packaged juices you get are super high in sugar."
PhreedomPhighter
"Ha. One of the reasons why I switched providers last year for my prenatal care was because the first one told me, in all seriousness, I needed to drink three cups of milk and two cups of juice per day. I was like, say what now???"
Lindsaydoodles
"Same with ketchup 25% of it is sugar."
GetOutOfTheWhey
Check the Bag
"Veggie Straws."
supernaut32
"This is actually a pretty good response. A surprising number of people didn't check the back of those packages to find that they're just Pringles that included a little bit of vegetable dust in the potato chip mix. People actually think they're just eating salty crispy vegetables."
no_comment12
Unsafe
"Anything 'natural' doesn’t immediately mean healthy. At least in the EU when a product is natural, it doesn’t need to go through all the testing that is required for other products. This doesn’t mean that the product is safe, as many natural products can be harmful."
Adriana-meyer
Dirty
"Panera Bread...healthy 'clean' ingredients. It's full of salt, sugar and processed crap."
Carrann823
Just because it says healthy or diet doesn't mean it's true. Lesson learned.
People Break Down Which Modern Day Practices And Beliefs Will Be Considered Barbaric In The Future
It's hard not to look back on history and be disgusted by a number of things which were at one point deemed acceptable, even not so long ago in the grand scheme of things.
The endless list includes segregation and women not having the right to vote.
We'd certainly like to think that we've come a long way.
But when we look back on how much we, as a culture, have evolved for the better, it also makes us stop and wonder what current customs or practices accepted in society today people twenty years from now will look back on in disgust.
This piqued the curiosity of RedditorSalt-Campaign6402,leading them to take to Reddit to ask:
"What modern day practice/ belief is most likely to be considered barbaric and outdated in the future?"
A revaluation of medical practices
"The way that f*cking speculum is shaped."- PopK0rnAndMMs
"Gynaecology procedures being done with out sedation or some type of proper numbing agent."- baconbutt96
"Chemotherapy."- sphygmomanometito
The end of stigma
"The entire system surrounding mental health."- crapgarbage
More respect for the environment
"Deforestation hopefully."- CrumbledTheCookies
More sustainable materials
"Single use plastics."- Lemilli000000n
Improvements in wages and working hours
"Working long hours to the point of sleep deprivation and exhaustion."
"Right now people brag about it."- HonestlyPizza
"Hustle culture."
"It's a scam made up by the rich to make the poor feel good about being exploited."- whythatusername
More humane treatment of animals
"Breeding dogs that can’t breathe."- username-alrdy-takn
Possible life saving advancements in science?
"I feel like organ transplants from strangers will seem bizarre in the future."
"I imagine we will be able to grow genetically-identical organs and use those instead."- thunderbiird1
Twenty years from now, we'll likely find ourselves relieved that some things have finally changed.
Then too, we might look back in horror at many things we wouldn't even take a second thought about at the time.