My nanny was very strict, as you will know already if you’ve read some of my other stories. She took us to the park sometimes and she would meet other nannies there. They compared notes on just about everything while we played.
One day, my brother Jeff brought his sailboat to the park. Nanny said he could not put it in the pond, but he could build a place for it in the sandbox, if he would like to. I had brought a doll and a book to read. I was six and Jeff was five.
Jeff was really unhappy about this and as I sat under a tree with my doll and book he came to me to complain. I told him I didn’t understand either, for boats were for water, but maybe nanny was afraid he’d get splashed. “No, I won’t. I can use a stick to push it. Will you help me?” It sounded so reasonable that I agreed.
I left my book and doll, checked on what nanny was up to and led Jeff to the bushes area. We found a longish stick and stripped the leaves off it. Jeff was all excited. The pond was near the tree where I was reading, so we went back there. Nanny had her back to me, for she was more focused upon the younger children in the sandbox, where she expected Jeff to be. She turned and saw him with me, smiled, and then turned back to a very lively conversation with two of her friends.
“OK, Jeff, I’ll help you get this going, now keep it close to the shore.” I showed him how to put the stick behind it and sweep the boat towards him. “I know, I know,” he said, “let me do it.” “OK. Here, be careful.” Jeff set his boat gently into the water and guided it carefully with the stick. He smiled at me and stood up proudly. As it moved, he crouched down and used the stick to guide it again.
He was doing fine, so I returned to my book. All of a sudden, he called to me that he couldn’t reach the boat. I guess some sort of breeze had come up. I hadn’t seen what happened. I jumped up and ran to the shore, grabbing the stick from him. I reached, but the boat was getting too far out for me too. I gave one last reach and fell face first into the pond.
It was completely shallow, so I hit the bottom quickly, but nanny was right there to pull me out. The boat drifted further down the bank, and another nanny got it for Jeff. Nanny stood me up and told me that I was a very, very naughty girl. She said that we would not get the ice cream we had been promised and that there was a sound spanking waiting for us at home.
“Me too?” asked Jeff. “Yes, you too. I told you not to put that boat in the water. Your sister should not have helped you do this!” We were to gather up our things, and we were scooted right home. I was freezing by that time.
“What happened?” exclaimed my alarmed mother when she saw me. “Everything’s fine. There will be a couple of red bottoms shortly, but there is some cleaning up to do first.” Mother nodded her approval and nanny shuffled us right up to the nursery. She told Jeff to get on to his bed, and stay there.
“Into the bathroom right now, young lady, and out of those sopping clothes!” Nanny began to run the water in the tub and added some sweet-smelling bubbles to it. With the water now turned off I was assisted into the bath.
On to my head the shampoo was dabbed and she began to scrub. “We must get all that pond scum out, you know. Very unhealthy.” She took a small saucepan, turned on the sink water, filled the pan and rinsed my hair. She tipped my head back so nothing would run into my eyes. Once I was all scrubbed and clean, she pulled the plug and lifted me out of the tub.
There was a chair in the bathroom. She sat there, placed a large, fluffy towel over her lap and put me down over it. I was still wet, but the towel was absorbing the water from the front of me. Nanny pushed my head down, so that my bottom was raised way up. To add to the angle, she lifted her right knee. I knew I was in real trouble, and I started to cry hard.
“Why are you crying? I haven’t even started on you yet. You knew that I told Jeff he could not put that boat in the pond. Why did you do that?” Crash, the first spank hit like a shot on my wet cheek. “You did such a dangerous thing being so close to the water. What would have happened if the boat had gone out further? Would you have jumped or waded in?” Whack! The next spank fell on the other cheek.
Nanny continued on and on with her lecture and ‘what ifs’, punctuated with spanks. She finished the lecture, but she wasn’t finished with me. She reached for the bath brush and began to spank my bare bottom with that long-handled brush. I cannot describe the hurt – it was awful. I don’t think it would have made any difference if my buttocks had been dry.
Nanny spanked and spanked and I thrashed all over her lap uncontrollably. She lifted her leg a little higher and began to spank my upper legs and along the right side of my buttock and thigh. I was hysterical.
When it was finally over, she wrapped me in a warm dry towel and held me close. “You must listen when I tell you things. You are the big sister and Jeff does what you tell him. You are the leader – he will follow you.
“I must go and spank him now, and I want you to see this, for I want you to remember that you could have been a big sister and told him no. It is your fault that he is about to be spanked.”
She told me all about being the big sister herself back in Scotland, and how her papa would spank her with his strap when the younger ones did things she should have stopped. She was rocking me gently as she talked to me. I was sobbing.
Nanny put my night-gown on me and put me on the couch in the nursery, wrapped in my warm, soft bathrobe. My bunny slippers were on my feet. My thumb was looking for my mouth.
I did not want to see Jeff spanked, but that was not to be. Nanny talked with him for a while in his room, then came into the playroom with him. Jeff was crying. He was looking around wildly – not at me at all. Nanny went to the top of the bureau and took down the ‘Board of Education’ spanking stick, as she called it. It was a flat long board that reminds me of the kind of stick one uses to stir paint.
She placed the stick on the children’s table and placed Jeff in front of her. She undid his overalls and slid them down. She made him lift one foot at a time as she took the trousers completely off. Then she removed his shoes and socks. Now, all that was left were his underpants, undershirt and striped polo shirt.
Over her knees he went and, in one swift motion, down came the underpants and off his feet. Jeff began to squirm. Nanny slapped his bottom and told him to stop. Jeff was crying. She did the same thing to Jeff as she did to me, raising her right knee slightly higher to raise his bottom.
She picked up the spanking stick. I buried my face in my arms. “Naughty boy, to put the sailboat in the water after I said no to that plan!” Spank! Jeff cried out. “Your naughty sister got her spanking too!” Spank! “Boy, you two together are really something!” Spank! “You must listen to me when I give you a direction!” Spank!
Jeff was howling now. Then Nanny became quiet and picked up the pace. She spanked Jeff with that stick for quite a while but it wasn’t terribly hard. It just sounded bad, and I am sure it hurt him.
When it was over, Nanny stood him up and Jeff danced all around, hopping and holding on to his buttocks. Nanny pulled him to her once more and pulled off his shirt. The undershirt came off with it.
When his arms were up I could see where the stick had struck him. There were some lines there, and his skin was pinkish red. Nanny reached over and took Jeff’s pyjamas in her hands. She helped him into them, sat him next to me, and put his slippers on him. Then she went to get his robe.
Jeff leaned over against me – maybe so his bottom wouldn’t touch the couch? I was doing OK, as long as I didn’t move. Nanny came back in with his bathrobe and took him from me. She stood him up and put the robe on him, and then she cradled him in her arms like a baby. His battered bottom hung down, for his legs were over her arms.
She walked to the rocking chair and talked to us both about having to listen to what she said. She explained that we might not understand but it had to do with staying safe.
There were many occasions after that when, in various states of dress and undress, over knees and over couch arms, I would get that lecture.
Contributor: Gigi