Back in my day we didn't have all this ADHD and other childhood afflictions that we have today. When dad said to sit still, you sat still. Or suffer the wrath. We also went out and played a lot. Burned off all that pent up energy. We came in for dinner and sat around the table with the rest of our family (without distractions such as phones) and discussed what we did that day. We had discipline and structure. Rules to live by. If you broke those rules then you can expect some more discipline.
If the phone did ring during dinner, somebody (mom) had to get up and walk over to the wall where it was mounted and tell the caller that we were eating and we would call back after we were finished. But this didn't happen very often because everyone else was eating about the same time. Then after dinner we went back out and played until the street lights came on (and then you better get home quick). Got a bath or shower and then we sat around the little TV as a family and watched wholesome (not racy or violent) shows until it was time to go to bed. Yes, we had a certain time each night we had to be in bed. We had structure to our day. We were on a schedule. And it worked.
Now if anyone here was/is diagnosed with ADHD or other type disorder don't get upset with me. I'm not saying it's not a real problem. But if anyone of the multitude of kids I grew up with had it, I didn't know about it. It probably wasn't a recognized disorder way back then. Or it was treated differently by being outside playing, riding your bike all over creation, hiking in the woods or just generally wearing your butt out doing who knows what. We didn't have the internet, video games or 447 cable/satellite channels on TV. Just UHF & VHF which consisted of about 20 channels. And you could usually find something decent to watch if you got the rabbit ears adjusted just right. And to change the station somebody (mom) had to get up and walk over and twist the channel dial on the front of the TV and then use the outer ring of the dial to fine tune the signal. Most TV's today don't even have a dial anymore.
No kid deserves to be beaten. Certainly not to bruise or break the skin or cause bleeding. But a pop on the rear every now and then as a reminder that breaking the rules comes with a consequence is a life lesson. You break the rules as an adult and you can end you up in jail. I got a number of life lessons as I was growing up and I turned out just fine and I've never been to jail. See, it worked (at least for me).
