In the 1960s, I was re-united with my best friend from grade school. By that time, Susan and her husband had three sons. The eldest, John (aged 10 at the time), was one for getting into everything. One late Fall afternoon, when Susan and I were having coffee, John came home and walked through their […]

This incident happened when I was about 10 years old and my brother Robbie was eight. We were close in age and always fighting and so forth, but this time my brother was on his own. I really can’t remember the exact circumstances but for some reason, he had locked himself in the bathroom and […]

The ‘mum’ I refer to in this story is not my biological mother – she was actually a friend of mine in high school who sort of took me ‘under her wing’. We were on the big coach on our way for our school music department’s annual music tour. This year, we were going to […]

Both of my parents, especially my Mum, were lovely and broadminded – but they also believed that a stern punishment should be handed out when necessary. They felt it was necessary quite often, so my siblings and I were quite experienced in getting a sore bottom from Mum or Dad. Some I forgot after my […]

One morning when I was eight, mom decided to take me and my younger sister shopping for a new dress. I was extremely excited because we didn’t shop very much and I loved getting new clothes – I mean, who doesn’t? So anyway, we were in the store for about an hour looking for a […]

Until recently, I had pretty much concluded that traditional parenting methods had gone the way of the dinosaur, as today’s parents seem increasingly prone to abdicate their responsibilities to the purveyors of psycho-babble and big government. The Sunday before last, however, I learned that my pessimism may have been premature. The incident that changed my […]

This is from my childhood in Scandinavia in the late 60s/early 70s, and is my recollection of my first bare bottom spanking. My mother would often threaten me with spankings if I did not behave. She would say things like: “I am going to the garden to cut a birch to use on your bare […]