Did anyone ever get spanked with a switch? What exactly is a switch?

Question

Was reading a book, and in it, the kids get spanked with switches when they misbehave. I think it is a southern punishment. best answer gets 10 points.

Answer 1

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for me the switch was a branch off of the apple trees in our yard.long and thin

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thanks

Answer 2

I think my parents used a switch on me one time when I was young. It is actually a thin branch taken from a tree. It is usually only about 1/4" thick but it stings pretty good. Sometimes kids were told to get their own switch from the tree which was supposed to make the punishment even that much more foreboding.

Answer 3

It is a small stick from a tree and no I haven't, but have seen kids here in KY whooped with them.

Answer 4

yes. my moms friend used to whoop her kids foe everything with a switch[and brooms,cords,etc.].a switch is like a stick of a tree.sometimes they pick the ones that are pointy and long so it can hurt.im glad i never got whipped with one!!!

Answer 5

I've never been hit with a branch, but my dad punched me in the face once. Then he locked me outside in the snow overnight. I think that's why I'm not too fond of the cold.

But that's just me.

I wish I was joking.

Answer 6

It is a small tree branch that most of the time my fam and my boyfriends fam had us pick off the tree. The ones that really hurt werent the solid hard ones it was the ones that were still green inside they had a crack almost like a whip to them.
they do it all over its not so much southern as old fashioned, my family is italian moms side and dad was from georgia.
bfs fam was from spain and new mexico. Its just old fashioned really.
it got the point across though

Answer 7

I do believe it is a southern expression..I was born in NC...another colloquial saying would be to switch your britches..in other words you've had it...but like the answer before me, the worst part was to have to cut a "switch" from the tree which is nothing more than a small limb that is just beginning to grow....take care...

Answer 8

my mom said she did when she was a kid it's a thin stick like branch from a tree like a wip.

Answer 9

I was born / raised in the South.

I was also "switched" a few times. With greenish, thin branches or even willow tree branches. Picked them myself till one day I picked the "wrong one" (ie thought I was trying to be smart & get a little wimpy one) Long, thin, straight, green, and very very stingy. Left welts on me for a few hours to 2 or 3 days.

Actually that's considered "child abuse" these days, if a mark lasts more than 24 hours...

Not sure if it's exclusively a Southern thing, however it was told to me at the time that it was indeed a Biblical thing to "drive foolishness" far from the heart of the child with the "rod of correction"

Personally I don't feel that it's a useful tool, at least it was not in my case. It never occured to me to change my behaviour and thus avoid punishment, as I'd often get spanked for something else anyways.

Answer 10

It usually refers to a narrow tree branch. Like a hickory switch. Nope, never got whipped with a switch.

Answer 11

i dont know what a switch is but spanking is never ok if you hurt your child when your upset or mad that teaches them to do the same and i dont see how any one could ever have unconditional love for there child and hurt them in any way thats wrong in any type off hitting

Answer 12

Oh yeah. Not only that, but I used to have to march up the road and pick out my own hickory switch. Its basically a small flexible branch that can be used without breaking (paddle, stick). Being so thin, it hurts alot and can draw blood. I'm sure it was a time-honored tradition in my family and was used on me until I was 10 or so. I remember my Grandmother drawing blood on my sister's legs with one once. After that, we stayed well out of her way. I'm not even in my 30's yet, so its not something that went away 50-100 years ago. I bet some families still do it. Fortunately mine doesn't.

Answer 13

A switch is a straight branch cut off a tree or shrub that is used for spanking. It is usually use cut right before it is to be usd, so it will be flexible, and then any twigs or leaves are removed. It is usually several feet long, and maybe a quarter inch to a half inch thick. Switches are usually only used when freshly cut, because they will soon dry out and become brittle. When they are fresh they are somewhat flexible and whippy, and will not break easily. I do not know if it is a southern punishment. I think switches were a common spanking implement all over the country in the olden days, but they are out of fashion nowadays. I'm sure some parents still spank with them, though. My parents used to spank me, but never with a switch. They used either their hand or a wooden spoon. I've spanked myself with switches, though.

Answer 14

A switch is a flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment of the birching type, called switching after it, especially when using a single branch: multiple branches are rather called a rod, a less flexible single rod is rather called a cane, an inflexible one a stick; a paddle is broader but hard and flattened.

Punitive switching
A switch makes an ominous 'swoosh' sound, rather like a whip, and can be agitated up and down quickly, so the lashes can rain down on the victim, who is usually a spankee, mostly bare bottom so it can 'bite' the skin. It hurts. While young children usually suffer it over the knee (or rather the lap), it can be more painful if the discipliner makes more elbow-room by ordering the punishee to lie or bend over an object, which can, especially if standing, increase the humiliation by exposing the genitals.

Switches are most efficient (i.e., painful and durable) if made of a strong but flexible type of wood, such as hazel (also use for a very severe birch) or hickory (see hickory stick); as the use of their names for disciplinary implements, without specification, and as verbs for lashing, indicates, birch and willow branches are time-honoured favorites, but branches from most strong trees and large shrubs can be used, often simply nearby from a garden, an orchard or the wild.

Making a switch is simply called cutting, as it only involves cutting it from the stem and removing twigs or directly attached leaves as those would lessen its sting (hence deliberately left on for sauna use). For optimal flexibility it is cut fresh shortly before use, rather than keeping it for re-use over considerable time.

Parents in the United States (where the wider paddle is the most common spanking implement) are reputed to threaten disobedient children with gifts of utilitarian coal and switches for Christmas should they not reform their behavior, although the actual practice of this is rare to the vanishing point, especially as most people live in urban areas where less suitable wood is easily at hand for the old-fashioned woodshed treatment and most modern educators consider such severe physical discipline cruel and it is often banned by law as child abuse.

The tamarind switch (in Creole English tambran switch) is a judicial birch-like instrument for corporal punishment made from three tamarind rods, braided and oiled, used long after independence in the Caribbean Commonwealth island states of Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
The Gilbertese tribal community at Wagina in Choiseul province (Solomon Islands) reintroduced by referendum in 2005 traditional "whipping" with coconut tree branches for various offences - the national justice system opposes this.