I’ve read elsewhere of women ruling their households with a rod of iron – my wife Gina ruled hers with a spoon of wood! We knocked out four children (three boys, one girl) in pretty quick succession, and of course maintaining order in an establishment of four young children can be very challenging at times.
As I’ve already hinted, my wife was a confirmed spanker and of course individual children were disciplined with it as needed. However, with four young kids constantly quarrelling and blaming each other for misbehaviour, it was probably more common for Gina to elect to spank them all, an activity she always referred to as ‘smack time’. The spoon would come out and there would be tears and sore bottoms.