I enjoyed reading your account about the history of The Rod, which you ended by asking whether there were any parents or children out there who had experience of using this spanking implement.
We are a Christian home-schooling family of the type you mention in your article, and we bought a Rod for our three children (two girls and a boy) when the youngest was five years old and the eldest was eight. Up until that point, we had either hand-spanked the children when they misbehaved, bare bottom across our knee, or used a wooden ruler for more serious offences.
We actually bought two Rods from Mr Bullock’s company, ordering a spare in case one got broken or the children thought it a good joke to hide it. We never needed that spare, I should add!
We were very impressed with The Rod. It felt very light and comfortable in the hand, and it produced the sting one might associate with a cane, but was still short enough to be used over the knee with our youngest. The elder two were made to bend over an arm of the sofa to receive their due.
Initially, I did try using it over pants, but quickly realised that it had to be given on the bare bottom to really make a child feel it properly and have a good cry. After just under a year, I started to get my youngest girl to bend over the sofa too, so we established a set routine for the chastening – a lecture, followed by an order to drop their pants and undies, then bend over. I or their dad would then whip them thoroughly, giving around a dozen strokes of The Rod for a typical punishment.
It was a very effective tool and taught my children a lot of valuable lessons about behaviour and obedience. After they had been beaten, the child would be put in the corner for a while, their spanked bottom on show to the rest of the family, and then maybe 10 or 15 minutes later they would be brought out, allowed to pull their pants up, and we would have a family prayer and Bible teaching time.
I very much enjoyed using The Rod, I have to say. It was a light, effective and safe implement, with which even mothers of quite big children could still inflict a good sore bottom to teach the necessary lesson. The only drawback for some parents was that The Rod did leave quite visible marks for a couple of days, little telltale lines across the child’s buttocks. This was no problem for us as a home-schooling family, but no doubt might bring trouble on a traditional family if liberal busybodies at a state school saw the marks.
I very much regret that Mr Bullock was basically bullied into ceasing production of The Rod, and it’s a big shame that they are not available today. I see plenty of children who could benefit from a dose of it across their bottoms. Bring back The Rod, say I!
I gave both my Rods away to other parents at a church when our own children grew too big to spank. Unfortunately both families have since left our area, so I don’t know if they still have them, or whether they are in use.
Contributor: Heather