ABSTRACT
The changes in the strictness with which children are and used to be brought up were very frequently discussed, and there was general agreement that parents nowadays are not the disciplinarians they used to be. We heard much about harsh punishment which at that time was taken for granted, at least within the informant's immediate environment: 'In them days they was really strict towards you, you used to get a good hiding for the least thing'; 'When I was being brought up by my grandad, they could use the belt on you'; 'My father was a hard man, and we often had the stick'. Sometimes the recollection of punishments which seemed unjustified still rankled, even after twenty or thirty years. Machine operator's wife:
'I used to get good hidings that I didn't deserve, and all like that, you know. Really, sometimes I think about it, you know.' It was recognized, however, that social conditions might have some bearing on parental strictness. Mothers frequently made excuses for their own mothers' harshness, realizing that parents nowadays rarely suffer the very severe frustrations and anxieties which must accompany low wages and under-employment. Tobacco worker's wife:
'Our mam was stricter, we got a lot of shouting at. Well, she was worried all the time about money, where the next meal was coming from and that. And we'd be asking, like kids do, "Mam, can I have a penny for this and a penny for that"-well, you're bound to get nasty if you haven't got it to give them. It gets on your nerves. Ours was a good mam, but it was the money you see.' Railwayman's wife:
knew where the next meal was coming from. My dad was out of work from the General Strike. Where my mother went wrong, I try to ... you know ... She always left us at night-time-she was working. Don't think I'm trying to blacken my mother, sort of thing, but ... you know, we used to have two penn'orth of meat between us and a penn'orth of chips between six of us. Well, I thought to myself, my children will never be like that; and they never have been. Of course, conditions are different, but they've always got their meals on the table. My mother nearly killed me once for pinching a ha'penny off the shelf. She did, honestly-but then, you see, things were very bad then .... They were bad old days, I wouldn't like those to come back.'
