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| My mom loved to use one of these, off-label, for a little child rearing. |
I already covered my dad's systematic execution-style spanking technique but what was far more common was rage hitting. This style of discipline was my mom's preferred method but my dad wasn't too shy about dipping into the 'smack-it-home' school of child rearing.
My mom had a short temper and my brother Matt and I loved to tease her and push her over the edge. When she was mad about something she would grab one of her favorite whacking implements and then try and lay a little hurt on our bottoms. The problems with her discipline were twofold. First, she had a poor understanding of simple physics and didn't understand which materials and objects are optimal for inflicting pain. Second, she was incredibly weak.
We had no fear of her whack game when we would do something naughty. She would loose her cool and pick up a bamboo back-scratcher, hair brush, fly swatter or some such nonsense and take a few swipes at us with it. Her hits were always feeble which would make us laugh, which would make her try harder. Then many times she would hit us so hard or so many times with her weak implements that they would break. The fun was over and she would threaten to tell my dad and get our butts the proper attention they needed.
Dad was stronger and had a magnificent grasp of the pain inflicting efficiency of a leather belt. We had no desire to upgrade. When it came to that, we would start either repenting or pretending that she had just laid the most painful beating on us that we had ever felt. It worked sometimes, other times we were too far into the hilarity of the situation and couldn't sober up in time to save ourselves a real butt beating.
