I’m the only child of a fairly middle class English family, who grew up in the 1980s. My parents weren’t particularly strict but they did believe in smacking my bottom when I misbehaved. At first, these admonishments were delivered by hand; then, as I grew older, with a slipper.
Dad was the disciplinarian and took responsibility for all corporal punishment in our house, although I think I may have had the odd slapped leg off Mum when I was a toddler. These smackings were always given with my knickers down around my thighs – they hurt a lot and I always cried like a baby.