As it's been said before, Ann had a fiery temper. Was it ever said whether she spanked Julie and Barbara when they were younger? I remember her slapping the crap out of Julie one time. What about their father, Ed? You always got the impression that Julie and Barbara got blistered when they were growing up.

It's hard to say - Ann was a "liberated" divorced mom who probably wanted to be "cool" in her kids' eyes, but she also had a temper to match her hair. If she WAS a spanker, I think the only one she would've spanked is Julie. Barbara seldom if ever gave her mom troubles, and certainly not on the scale Julie did. So I don't know. Good question, though.

I think Ed did the spanking. In one episode she stated that he spanked them when needed. She did slapped Julie across the face when she pushed the envelope with Ann. If she did spanked it was out of anger and I can see her getting out of control with it.

Yes, Ann wanted to be a "cool" mom, but I think her old-fashioned child-raising ideas and her temper prevented her from being that sometimes. I can really see her getting mad at Julie and Barbara when they were little and misbehaved. If I were a kid and had a spanking coming, I'd much rather get it from Ed than from Ann. LOL Ed probably would have given you a good one, but I don't see him going overboard. With Ann, however, I do see her going way overboard and hitting too hard and too much. Ann had such a hot temper. Ed's was much more in check. Ed probably held back when he spanked Julie and Barbara, and I doubt he did unless it was absolutely necessary.

not that I remember

I do remember paddling Alex and slapping him in the face two seasons before that. He deserved that slap across the face. No doubt about that.

who was Alex.

Her late boyfriend's son whom she had guardianship over. However, she did slap him when the boyfriend was alive.

I don't believe so, no. Ann was more of a "Let's sit down and talk it out" sort of mother.

Yes! I can say that, for sure, Ann was a mother who believed in spanking her kids.

I remember a line where Ann told her daughters, "your father gave you a good spanking when you needed it," and I remember the episode where Ann slaps Alex. When Alex runs to tell his dad (Nick) that Ann hit him, Nick yells at Ann saying to her, "his mother never smacked him like that. I never smacked him like that!" and then Ann replies, "Maybe you should have."

But, hey, just like Maude Findlay said in the episode entitled "Phillips's Problem" of the show Maude, "Sometimes, in order to get a child to act like an angel on one end, you have to beat the devil out of him out of the other end. Actually, it's called exorcism."

I even recall Barbara saying that her Mom had spanked her when she was little.

And then there was an episode where Alex skipped school and was going to be paddled by the Principle as punishment. Anne was against teachers paddling kids, but when she brought alex home she accepter her full duties as guardian to Alex, and she pulled out a large wooden cutting board to discipline him. The episode ended with Alex bending over and Anne delivering the first swat.

So Barbara said Ann spanked her? What for, and did she say if Ann just used her hand or an implement? Did Barbara think this was good or bad?

I can't remember the episode, but Barbara did state that Ann spanked her when she was 5 for putting apple cores in the clothes hamper. It was not right because Barbara then says the apple cores were Julie's. Julie admits it grinning, and her face says that she knows she would have gotten a spanking had Ann known about it at the time. So yes, Ann was indeed a spanking mom. I think Ann and Ed shared the disciplinary duties. Ann probably spanked them more since she would have been at home with them, but Ed definitely spanked them too at least some because Ann states that emphatically.

May I say that the fact that the writers made Ed and Ann spanking parents is just one of the many things that made this show so realistic and so good. Let's face it folks. Most kids growing up at the time Julie and Barbara did, the 1960s, were spanked as discipline. Ed and Ann were REAL parents of the era. "One Day at a Time" never sugar-coated anything, and it never tried to ignore facts or change history. Some people may not like the idea of spanking kids, and but most all kids were spanked in that era. For a sitcom to ignore that fact would have been totally unrealistic.

So many sitcoms, even those from the 1950s and '60s but certainly more recent ones, will have typical sitcom punishments that amount to nothing. It's all short and sweet. However, when Ann Romano punished her daughters or reprimanded them, she did it like a real mother would. Heck, Barbara got grounded for an entire month for running off to Chicago. I liked how they didn't do the typical sitcom fluff of Ann realizing she was wrong and then letting Barbara off with no punishment.

By the time the show started, Julie and Barbara were obviously too old to be spanked, but from the flavor of the show we learn that they were spanked when they were little. And we can infer that those spankings amounted to something. Ann wouldn't have merely dusted them off. She would have busted their butts. And even though Ed was very gentle, sweet, and even in his own words a "patsy for the girls", I bet he could lay down the law pretty good himself when the girls were little. It can be inferred that Ed was stricter before the divorce when he saw the girls more than just on weekends. Plus, they were older by that time too.

I hope so.

I am so tired of the "liberated" and progressive ideas that were so prevalent in the 70's. I would have imagined a spanking episode to have been more like this:

Barbara does something *really* stupid or dangerous, causing Ann to think that her life was in danger. Ann spanks her out of frustration. But ends up crying and apologizing, blaming it on her own "outdated" upbringing. She promises never to touch her daughter again in any way that is not completely "loving."

Is there a barf bag nearby?

I think the answer is yes, Ann did spank on occasion when Julie and Barbara were little. So did Ed. It is confirmed for Ed because Ann specifically states that he spanked. Ann was in complete support of the way Ed disciplined the girls. After the divorce, he became very much of a pushover because he had absent parent syndrome, but before the divorce he made his girls behave. The only confirmed incident of Ann spanking was when Barbara stated in a later season episode that Ann spanked her at age 5 for putting apple cores in the clothes hamper. That is the only confirmed time that we know Ann spanked, unless there were other episodes that mentioned it that I am not thinking of at the moment. However, I just got the general idea that Ann was a spanking mom on an occasional basis just based on the show, her personality, etc.

Most of you seem to be talking about a different "One Day At A Time" than the one I am familiar with.
I guess it is because I stopped watching it regularly slightly before it Jumped the Shark after which there were new characters that were not there when the series first began.
It never seemed to me that Ann was a hot tempered mom. She did not seem neurotic or overly strict , or overly lenient with her daughters.
It seemed that the show did depict a more modern mother and her two teen daughters and it was very much a female version of The Courtship Of Eddie's Father in which a dad never spanked his young son, only had "man to man" talks with him, and likewise One Day At A Time depicted a mom who talked with her daughters rather than beat them.One Day At A Time seemed to be realistic in certain ways such as when it depicts Ann, a divorced mother finding romance with other men at times only to have to break it off just before marriage or a serious relationship takes place, also the common things that happened to teens during the mid 1970s such as dating irresponsible young men, having a suicidal friend, or trying to get a job but somehow failing , but it still was a sitcom that depicted funny things happening to a mom and her daughters like any sitcom.
It did not seem that the main element to the main character Ann was her
strictness with her daughters, or that the main concept was that the show depicted the kind of parents that existed in the 1960s , the ones who spanked thier children.

I watched this show as a kid and have seen every episode. The answer to the question is yes. Ann did spank her daughters, but only when they were little. In other words, the spankings would have taken place in Logansport before the show started. By the time of the show, Julie and Barbara have outgrown spanking, and Ann has moved on to grounding, etc., discipline more appropriate for teenagers.

In the episode "David Loves Ann", Ann jokes with Julie and Barbara that they are not too old to be spanked, but she laughs as she says it. In the episode "Vegas", Barbara remembers Ann spanking her at age 7 for something Julie did. Ed spanked them too. This is confirmed in the final scene in the episode "Dad Comes Back". It is evident that Ann fully supported Ed in spanking them. I think that Ed was probably stricter before the divorce and became more lenient afterwards since he didn't see his girls often anymore.

Ed and Ann were good parents and were typical of that era. Most parents spanked their kids then. Neither Ed or Ann believed in spankings past a certain age. However, Ann did paddle Alex at an advanced age. Still, that was probably more symbolic to prove to Alex that he belonged in the family.

I watched this show as a kid and have seen every episode. The answer to the question is yes. Ann did spank her daughters, but only when they were little. In other words, the spankings would have taken place in Logansport before the show started. By the time of the show, Julie and Barbara have outgrown spanking, and Ann has moved on to grounding, etc., discipline more appropriate for teenagers.

In the episode "David Loves Ann", Ann jokes with Julie and Barbara that they are not too old to be spanked, but she laughs as she says it. In the episode "Vegas", Barbara remembers Ann spanking her at age 7 for something Julie did. Ed spanked them too. This is confirmed in the final scene in the episode "Dad Comes Back". It is evident that Ann fully supported Ed in spanking them. I think that Ed was probably stricter before the divorce and became more lenient afterwards since he didn't see his girls often anymore.

Ed and Ann were good parents and were typical of that era. Most parents spanked their kids then. Neither Ed or Ann believed in spankings past a certain age. However, Ann did paddle Alex at an advanced age. Still, that was probably more symbolic to prove to Alex that he belonged in the family.


Good post ! I agree!!! ;) :wave:

Good post ! I agree!!! ;) :wave:

Thanks, Bonniegirl! I love how ODAAT made Ed and Ann realistic parents, imperfect but good. Any kid would be lucky to have them as parents, even separate parents as Ann said.