I’m sure that many of those who were spanked as children were very familiar with the threat of ‘wait ’til your father gets home’.
Moms were usually responsible for handing out immediate discipline to little ones, so that they made the connection between the misdeed and the punishment, but in many families, particularly in the Bible Belt where I grew up, it was to the father that the family looked to maintain discipline – and many dads would go home from their job in the evening knowing that they were due to perform their fatherly duty.