The general feature of childhood memories that I have experienced, heard, or read about, support the convention that it is the male who does the ‘hard’ discipline, as in the line “Wait until your Father gets home!”, and the female who is associated with the ‘softer’, more nurturing role in child-rearing.
My Mother spanked we children across her knee on the bare bottom with her hand. It was certainly considered by my Brother, Sister, and myself, as infinitely preferable to the biting sting of Dad’s hair brushings.
There was too, despite the fact that I was being punished by her, a certain feeling of closeness and security across my Mother’s knee, and ultimately of love, forgivenes and reconciliation when the spanking was over, which was absent from my Father’s punishments.