Now to be more specific about my own experiences.

I was an only child in a middle-class family.

My parents weren’t particularly strict but believed in a firm set of principles of behaviour.

I didn’t have any trouble with this, being generally in agreement and (I think) reasonably well behaved.

But if I did transgress and do something contrary to their wishes (and it would usually be something about which I was myself ashamed), I would naturally and inevitably expect to be punished.

My mother took responsibility for my punishments, and had the normal range available for the day – I was kept in (‘grounded’ in today’s parlance) for a given period, stopped from doing things I wanted to do, had my pocket money withdrawn and so on.

in her armoury (quite normal for the time) my mother included corporal punishment.

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