I’d believe it. When I was 20, I got my cartilage pierced. I went to hug my 50+ mom goodbye one day, and she noticed it, and slapped me for it. It all depends on the physical situation when OP’s mom found out. It’s possible it was like me, mid hug with no chance of escape.

And that's when you inform them that the next time they try something like that, you'll have them arrested.

You're* It is perfectly plausible for an elderly person to abuse a younger adult. Especially if you were raised to always respect parents.

The definition of spank is to slap ones bottom with an open hand or flat object. It does not include the words "over the knee". So if Mom grabbed this person's wrist and started wailing on her ass while the OP was in standing position, that would still be considered getting spanked. The OP didn't need to allow themselves to get spanked, they just needed to not have a chance to dodge for it to have happened.

Yeah it still begs the question why she didn't just punch her upside the head while she was hitting her.

No, a mother can't spank her 33 year old child with all the ritual that people apparently expect to be involved with getting spanked. To be honest, the amount of ritual that commenters on here seem to expect to be involved with getting spanked makes me think most of them are pulling their spanking information from **** videos rather than real life parent child interactions. It would be entirely possible for a mother to go in for a hug and instead just swat the person on the ass a few times. It would be possible for them to grab from behind and start walloping the person's ass before they get a chance to get away. Hell, depending on the strength of the parent involved it would be entirely possible to catch their child off guard, catch them off balance, and pin them to a piece of furniture and start swatting. There are tons of ways that a parent can succeed in spanking their 33 year old child before their child has a chance to react to what's happening.