The only thing to be said in favour of this ordeal was that it was, as Mother had promised me, quickly over with. And as a mother myself today, I still think that’s the chief thing to be said in favour of corporal punishment.
Once I had been given my caning, I was sent to my room for half an hour, then allowed to rejoin Mother and my dad in the lounge. I was made to say sorry to them both, of course.
The caning marked a watershed in my behaviour, and far from resenting these punishments, they made me bond closely with my new mother. I can’t say I ever enjoyed being punished by her, but whenever she decided I needed another dose of the cane (and these continued until I was around 15), I went meekly as a lamb to be beaten.