I Received A Bedtime Spanking

Normally, my mom spanked us children right after the "crime" was done or discovered. But sometimes, when we slipped up at dinner or thereafter, mom would say "I will deal with this when you are ready for bed!" Of course, my siblings and I knew that the "dealing" was to be done between mom's hand (or hairbrush) and our poor bottoms.

I remember one evening in particular; I must have been 10 or 11. It was my turn to clear the dinner table and do the dishes, but my best friend called on the phone, and naturally we had a long conversation. Mom walked up to me, making signs that I should stop and clean up, but I chose to ignore her. I must have been on the phone for half an hour or more, and by that time mom had done what I was supposed to do. When I finally stopped talking to my friend, mom calmly said "I want you to go to bed right away. Wait for me when you have washed and brushed your teeth."

To cut a long story short, the evening ended with an extensive talk about family duties and priorities, and mom underscored her point by turning me over her knee, pulling down my PJ trousers and using her fairly strong hand for a good number of smacks on my bottom. Nothing cruel (and I sure was glad that the hairbrush did not come into play!), but mom sure knew how to make me remember my duties! When I finally was by myself, I soon fell asleep.

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Aspies19

I'm glad at least you didn't get the hairbrush! Although the hand can be underrated so I'm sure it hurt plenty!

Alfred22

You are so right, Aspies19. The most fair and educational spanking I ever got was from my Dad and it was only four spanks with his left hand. I remember it and that he was a lefty when he spanked or played sports. Teachers forced him to learn to write with his right hand.

Cassandra90

All my spankings were hand spankings and they hurted a lot.

Germanmom · 61-69, F

@Cassandra90: Yes, mom's hand on bare bottom can be a powerful weapon!

Alfred22

@Germanmom: So true. Genuine and legitimate parental influence and power comes from wisdom and love. Only a small portion of it depends on the usual parental ability to inflict intense and unbearable stinging pain. For almost all children capable of learning from a spanking, a moderately intense hand spanking is adequately painful. Additional pain is indeed painful and may extend and drag out the recovery period, but I would like to see any evidence that such additional pain "works better."

I am going to post about what I do think the additional pain does do: namely, it induces a low level, constant dread and fear. This low level never-ceasing awareness that a child might incur that howling-inducing, unbearably intense spanking pain likely causes exposure of the whole endocrine system to higher levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. Constant stress is known to speed ageing and all sorts of health issues.

Germanmom · 61-69, F

@Alfred22: I think you make a very good and important point. It is all right that children know that bad acts have unpleasant consequences (including spankings), but excessive beating does much more harm than good (no good at all, actually).

Alfred22

Well-said, GM. You are always, as the Brits say, "Spot on!"

I suppose the issue is not whether spankings should rise to the level of being prohibited by Child Protective Services. Everyone would say that they should not. OK.

But where there is MUCH disagreement is over whether it is ok that parental spankings induce an "unbearable" temporary sting. I doubt that a short-lived unbearable sting qualifies as a beating or abuse. So the issue is whether those "losing it" or "passed beyond the breaking point" moments are illegal. I assert that they are not illegal but that for sensitive children (such as I was and maybe you were also) they induce that constant dread. And, that constant dread is bad for the physical health of the child. What do you think based on your experiences?