The problem here is that Generation X, Y & Woke have stupidly conflated parents giving their misbehaving / tantrum throwing kids a whack on the ass with their hands, wooden spoon or even an odd belt once while with being the same as legitimate "abuse"... and it just fuckin' isn't the same at all.

I got the ass whack. I got the spoon. Even got the belt a couple times. Not only did I probably deserve it, I would never, ever, ever consider it "abuse"... because it wasn't. Not even remotely.

People like the OP, however, who were apparently "getting the living shit beaten out of them" and had "mostly-absentee parents just going off" on them - yeah, THAT is abuse to the definitive letter. And there is a hell of a giant grey zone between what I and many others got vs. that level of pain infliction.

All I know is that at 45 years old, no Dr. Phil's or hashtagging millennial in the world can ever tell me that *I* was "abused" just because I got spanked and they can't tell the difference between that and someone who is actually beaten to a pulp by terrible parents.