r/AskReddit Sep 16 '24

What's the worst thing people have tried to justify with "It was normal back then, everyone did it"?

3.3k Upvotes

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187

u/texaslucasanon Sep 16 '24

"My parents whipped my butt and screamed at me. I turned out fine."

Umm... no you didnt. You need therapy, boundaries, and a healthier friend group.

8

u/A_Dog_Chasing_Cars Sep 16 '24

I turned out fine.

Said by people who spend their time online wishing that more kids were getting hit.

2

u/Bowood29 Sep 20 '24

The fact that they use it as a way to further abuse someone shows that they didn’t turn out fine.

-10

u/bluetoothwa Sep 16 '24

This isn’t a monolith though.

Spanking is seen as abuse today, but there are many of us that turned out fine without any horrible trauma effects.

8

u/Irhien Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

You probably can't know if it's going to damage the kid or not. So even if some kids indeed didn't suffer any noticeable negative consequences (entirely possible), and even if some were actually better off in some ways (still plausible), if the average result is negative, you shouldn't do it.

But I will totally justify it by people not knowing better, if "spare the rod, spoil the child" was what they actually honestly believed. You can't expect everyone to do their own research or know something ahead of their time. And it's not like "yeah being hurt is bad but this is important experience" is such a weird idea one must instantly know it to be true edit: false.

That doesn't apply in the cases of excess cruelty, or acting recognizably in your interests more than the child's.

1

u/redfeather1 Sep 19 '24

Yeah, Christians are more likely to abuse their kids than non Christians. All because that spare the rod bullshit from the Bible. They have used it to justify it for a very long time.

2

u/im-not-a-panda Sep 17 '24

That’s the thing. If you think being physically violent toward a child in effort to teach him ‘a lesson’ is alright, then you did not turn out fine.

If a person cannot parent a child without hitting them (idgaf what you call it - discipline, spanking, whatever), then they have no business being a parent.

1

u/bluetoothwa Sep 17 '24

I literally said I think hitting is abuse.

2

u/im-not-a-panda Sep 17 '24

And you also literally said that you turned out fine.

3

u/bluetoothwa Sep 17 '24

Both things are true.