the wire end of that thing whacked across your butt for doing something stupid?

My mother considered it her less than lethal option, especially after she broke a yardstick over my butt.

A lilac switch will get you moving, too. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Your mother may not have a very good opinion of her child, to put it mildly. My father learned to drink beer during World War II as a Navy Seabee. He developed and maintained an addiction until the day he tripped and fell down the cellar stairs, "drunk as a skunk", landed on his head on the cement floor and died. He never did hit his sons. I never realized how lucky my brothers and I were.

Remember The Beach Boys? Brian Wilson? Supposedly his father Murry hit Brian in the head with a 2×4, resulting in the permanent loss of hearing in his right ear. Parental abuse was not spoken of those days.

I shall not ask how you know about a lilac switch. I can guess one would "get you moving too".