Counting the cost

When I was nine years old, my mother took me and my younger brother and sister to a department store where my grandmother worked. We needed school clothes and my grandma was able to help clothe us and provide my mom with a much-needed discount. Naturally, us kids quickly got extremely bored with the process […]

Caught smoking

I grew up in Ohio in the 80s and by the age of 11, my best friend and I had grown curious about being cool like our fathers, both of whom smoked cigarettes and loosely knew each other from work. We had begun sneaking butts from our fathers’ ashtrays and saving them for when we […]

The candy bar

I was all dressed for Sunday School with my younger brother Jeff. My father gave us each a quarter for the collection basket in Sunday School, and off we went. Mom was home with the new baby. I was seven and Jeff was six. I told Jeff I had an idea. “Why don’t we go […]

Late again

Several summers ago. my siblings and I were at our subdivision pool, swimming. At the time, we were aged 10 to 14. Mom had told us to be home no later than 4pm, but we were playing with a bunch of our friends and lost track of time.  At 4:45, Mom showed up at the […]

Demonstration of love

My mother believed in firm and strict discipline. At first, she seemed to prefer the ‘instant response’ style of immediately dealing with any inappropriate behaviour, naughtiness, disrespect etc. But later she shifted to scheduled sessions, both more ritualised and more severe. She felt these enabled her to better ‘demonstrate her love’. A typical session would […]

Uncle Jonathan

My friend Anna had an Uncle Jonathan, who lived with her and her father. Anna’s parents were divorced, which was rare in my generation and circles. The three of them lived in a huge house, and Anna had her own suite of rooms in the front. I met Anna through school, and I believe we […]

Crossing into discipline

I was at primary school in the 1950s in the north-east of England, where spankings at home and at school were commonplace. My first bare bottom spanking occurred when my name was called out at assembly by the headmistress to report to her office. When I arrived, I saw the school crossing warden (commonly known […]