And still is. In the US it would be primarily in the Evil Belt.
In the 1870s, a woman named Etta Angell Wheeler rescued an abused little girl with the help of the guy in charge of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The guy from the ASPCA then went on to found a the first version of a child protective agency. So, while sadly abuse may have been widespread for man-years after that, it is NOT true that it was universally accepted it as normal.
Sure, we’re more looking for the tipping point or the ramping up point the preceded it. I’m pretty sure child abuse was never universally accepted. In the Gospel, Jesus has a fair amount to say about the importance of children. Also, it would make sense that we would have some inbuilt aversion to harming children. An animal that gratuitously harms its own viable offspring is seriously broken from a biological point of view.
As an analogy, we could ask when homosexuality became accepted. We could doubtless find people in the 1870s who had no problem with homosexuality but the tipping point was in the 90s/2000s whereas it started ramping up in the 60s/70s too.
I do find it interesting that the man you mention started with prevention of animal abuse before child abuse. I’m not sure what it means but I remember Spice Weasel saying that fundraising for animal causes tended to be easier than for children causes.
Even worse: when my wife was a (disobedient) kid growing up in China, her parents used to beat her with a belt. Then if they went to the public baths, other people would look at her bruises and scold her for being a terrible child. After all, good children don’t have bruises!
I got spanked quite a bit when I was young, usually a belt or hand and most definitely I deserved it. I clearly remember being in 5th grade [1976 our so) and we were being taught at school that if your parents abused you to call 911.
Well, being the smartass that I was/am my Mom was spanking my rear end one day and i got the bright idea to say “I’m going to call 911 and report you”. Workout missing a beat, Mom looked at me and said *Try to make it to the phone! " Ah, good times.
Also in the 70s I smarted off to my Dad at a bowling alley. He proceeded to teach me that a child does not talk back to his father, especially in public. He was swatting me with his hand while holding me up in the air by my arm with the other. Two old ladies came up and started yelling at my father for hitting me. I remember getting real cocky and thinking " oooh, Dad’s in trouble now". He turned to those two old ladies and said “When I’m done with him, you two are next!” Shut me and those old ladies up!
Certainly couldn’t get away with that today. And make no mistake, I deserved every spanking I got and none were over the top and none were abuse. It certainly taught me right from wrong.
Now that I’m a parent I can say that, yes, I’ve spanked my children. But not near as much as my parents did, they turned out to be better kids than I was. Perhaps this is what’s wrong with today’s generation, they need a good spanking and to stop being coddled. Not abuse mind you, but just a subtle reminder on your butt about right versus wrong.
My best friend (mid to late 1960s) would regularly come to school with welts on his body from his Dad’s belt. I remember him lifting his shirt or his pant leg to show us, sorta matter-of-factly. I presume the teachers knew as well, but nothing was ever done about it as far as I know.
Maybe because our gym teachers beat us too. One had his custom made paddle - with holes drilled into it to diminish wind resistance - hanging in plain sight in his office. The paddlings would be done in front of the rest of the class. “Bend over and touch your toes”, he would command.
If it was a swimming (not gym) day, you would receive the paddle in your swimsuit, again in front of the other students.
These were not light taps, either. I can still remember hearing the crack as wooden paddle struck wet swimsuit.
mmm
I’m sorry. That really sucks.
When my mother took my older brother to see the doctor because he was limping the doctor asked what had happened and my mother truthfully told him it was because my father had stomped on his leg/foot. The doctor then actually physically turned his back to them and silence. This would have been in the early 60s. Child and spouse abuse didn’t happen in good Mormon families. Bishops (the lay leader of a Mormon congregation) counseled my mother to be more faithful rather than get to the bottom of it. Reporting the abuse would not have been in anyone’s minds.
My aunts have told me that they just didn’t realize how bad it was. I really don’t know how they couldn’t unless it was simply the same mindset as the doctor. There were a number of times it got too much and my mom took us kids to stay with one of her sisters for a couple of days.
Another time, my maternal grandfather came over and installed a chain lock to keep my father out of the house. He stayed with his mother for a couple of days and then came back.
If they didn’t know how bad it was, they simply weren’t asking questions. I cannot see how someone would go over to an offspring’s home to install a lock to keep out a spouse without getting more information. This was a specific action taken to protect a family, yet no followup occurred. No bigger questions were asked. Why would you lock someone out of a house rather than take other measures unless there was physical danger involved?
Society simply put up with child abuse in the 60s and 70s to a far greater degree than it is now. Fathers were the patriarchs of home and wives and children were their prerogatives. Don’t get me started on sexual abuse either.
Unfortunately I don’t have the time to write the response that this deserves, but I believe you are correct. While I’m not a particularly big fan of it, physical discipline given “after a few warnings and [as] restrained and fair” does not appear to cause the same level of trauma in children as unfair, unrestrained and without warning, let alone just beating kids up when you’re drunk such as discussed in the OP. That leads to severe problems later in life.
I was one of those kids. I spent my childhood constantly bruised on my arms and legs. I mean every day I did something wrong by my mother’s standards, and I got it. You grow up believing that you deserve such treatment because you are no good.
I read in a recently published religious tract that there’s nothing wrong with corporal punishment, and bruises and welts are signs that the parent is doing a good job. Yes, really.
She may not have been afraid of being beaten herself, but she may well have been afraid of other repercussions. Verbal abuse is one thing that comes to mind. Also the threat of having to leave him and having no economic support, or being condemned by her family, or whatever.
Doesn’t make it right, mind you.
I grew up during the 60s and 70s and while I never saw the kind of physical abuse the OP describes, I certainly saw corporal punishment being meted out in school. Specifically my first grade teacher (a nun) and 6th grade.
Sister R (first grade) firmly believed in “spare the hand, spoil the child” and would slap you for misbehaving… or for making mistakes. While I don’t condone the slapping in any circumstance, I suppose you could argue that it wasn’t out of line if you were misbehaving. But hitting a child for misunderstanding is clearly abusive.
Mrs M (6th grade) had a yardstick she called her “Happening Stick” and she’d swat your desk or occasionally your hand for inattention. I’m sure she couldn’t get away with the hand-swat these days, but back then nobody cared - in fact the kids all viewed it as a joke, and when it broke we’d all chip in our pennies and buy her a new one.
The verbal abuse, now… several of the teachers clearly had no damn business being in front of a classroom.
With the whole “mandated reporter” thing, I have to hope people get away with less of the physical abuse at least, though I imagine at least some of the abusers have gotten cagier about not leaving visible bruises :(.
It may be comparable to how we now think of sibling-on-sibling abuse. Born in 1967, I was never beaten by my parents or any adult; but I was mercilessly taunted, and often beaten up by my brother, and occasionally by neigbourhood kids. Then, as now, we tend to think of such violence as trivial and private and just something that happens and toughens you up. That may change. Sibling abuse - Wikipedia
Good signature, too. 
Not to dispute either of those factors (especially the second) but I think there’s a third factor as well.
It’s a lot less damaging to being indulgent if you’re doing it on rare occasions than if you do it on a regular basis, so grandparents have a luxury that parents don’t have.
If grandparents let the grandchildren stay up late watching TV or eat only junk food whenever they visit, that’s no big deal. If parents are similarly indulgent, it is.
Man, I feel for you in a personal sense, but am kinda’ confused about the local aspect of your childhood situation - did these experiences happen when you were a teen-ager or when you were a “small kid” ? As an Intermediate school and High School student in the early ‘60’s, I lived and went to school in a poor (and considered ‘rough’ ) neighborhood of Honolulu (Kalihi). Granted, they were large schools where you couldn’t possibly know every one, but I had friends from ‘well-off to welfare’ and every ethic and multi-ethnic background. "Nevah hear da’ kine stuffs no mean nevah happen, brah", but if that was any way common for us it was totally unseen and never referred to at all. You did say 60’s-70’s so child abuse situations could certainly gotten way more out of hand during that period. It would be of interest (and understanding) to have a better idea of your neighborhood to put this into perspective for me. Once again, just puzzled and thinking maybe I was even more clueless at the time (I was!) than I thought. Mahalo, Brah.
Oh, Kalihi boy huh? You tuff den! 
I don’t want to give exact years just to keep an bit of privacy, but grade school in the 60’s to early 70’s. We moved just after 6th grade and that’s when the abuse stopped.
I went to a very highly regarded elementary school in Town and we were primarily East Asian (Japanese, Chinese, Korean), 2nd or 3rd generation born in Hawaii. I just remembered that one Chinese guy who I don’t think was born in Hawaii, but came here when he was very young had one of the worst beatings I’d seen, I think he may have had a broken arm at one time, not sure though.
A thought just came to me. As I mentioned earlier, the teachers and the rest of the school staff definitely knew what was going on, but turned a blind eye to it. The most that I ever recall being asked by was “What happened?”, followed by “Oh”. There was no “Let me know if someone beats you” or “Let me know if someone touches you inappropriately.” There was a rumor that the Vice Principal had a paddle, but I never knew whether the stories that he used it was true or not.
The interesting thing is that there was no “Kill Haole (caucasian)”, "Slap a Jap"day. I heard that it was a thing in my middle school in the 70’s, but I was so rarely there, I don’t know if I just missed it.
A bit of twisted humor. Sometimes I turn on wrestling and a someone getting beat with a belt. I cringe at first, then chuckle a little inside thinking “That’s not a whipping! I’ll tell you what a REAL whipping was like!”
I missed the edit window, but with the exception of a handful, most of the kids were middle to upper middle class. Some of the fathers were politicians (don’t recall their kids coming with bruises). We were on the lower end of middle class struggling to move up.
Didn’t plan to share this, but the gates have been opened so might as well continue on. What’s amazing about that I’m about to tell is that some kids and adults I’ve told this story to said they had it worse than me!
BTW, while I truly appreciate the condolences, I’m posting this because it’s a cathartic event for me.
When I didn’t want to go to school in the morning (which was the worst thing I ever did!), my Dad would strip me bare, whip me, throw me in the shower (which was saunalike and nearly pitch black), turn on the cold water, then lock me in. It wasn’t until many years later that I suddenly realized, “Why was there a bolt on the outside of the door?”.
On a good day, I’d fall asleep in there and my Mom would let me out when my Dad left for work (I had to strip and return when he came home). On a bad day, my Dad would go to work or just argue with my Mom, then whip me again and return me to the shower.
I used to bang my head against the walls trying to knock myself out (a habit what continued into my 20’s) and when I saw a doctor for anger management he said it’s highly likely I caused permanent brain damage to myself.
Oh, BTW this occurred from the time I was in Kindergarten until the 5th grade. I actually liked the 6th grade!
Sorry, one more.
When I was around 11 or 12, I was playing around with my sister’s boyfriend and using the curtain to hide behind. I’m sure my Dad told me to stop, but he suddenly punched me in the stomach, the kind where you actually hear the air leaving your body! The only thing I remember him saying was “You’re lucky, that was only a love punch!”
I never brought it up until decades later when I was having a huge verbal fight with my Dad (don’t remember what it was about) and yelled at him “Why did you punch me that day?” He said “You want to punch me? Go ahead.” I just looked him straight in the eye and said “If I did, I wouldn’t stop until I killed you.” and walked away.
It’s the same mindset which led to battered women, or those raped by their spouses, hearing “well, you must have done something to provoke him” or “you’re exaggerating”. And of course if a teacher “had long hands”, why, (s)he was just enforcing discipline! Amazing how so many other teachers could manage to do so without resorting to hitting anybody.
Lingyi, thats terrible. Thats cruel abuse. If it helps to share here, we’re listening.