When I was six, I had to stay with my grandmother for a few weeks, along with my sister Cristina, because my father was going into hospital to have stomach surgery. My grandmother was very good to us but one day I made her angry – and I ended up with a sore bottom.
I had not woken up in too good a mood to begin with – for some reason, I really didn’t want to go to school. Nevertheless, my grandmother took us both down and we went in.
I returned in an even worse mood that afternoon – I had misbehaved in class and as a result I had been punished by having to miss recess.
We sat down for dinner and I my mood darkened. Grandma had made a dish of lentils which I really didn’t like at all, so I refused to eat up. “Laura, you have to eat,” my grandmother told me. “Now, get on with your dinner.”
I refused, and sat there with my arms crossed and a face like thunder. Grandma looked more serious now. “You’re not getting up from that table until you’ve eaten your food.”
I responded by pushing the lentils around on my plate a bit with my fork. Then the phone rang and Grandma went into the hallway to answer it. Seeing my chance, I got up from my chair with my plate, and went into the kitchen, where I scraped the hated lentils into the trash bin. I quickly returned to my seat with my empty plate, putting my knife and fork together, as I had been taught, to indicate that I had finished.
Unfortunately, I had reckoned without the treachery of my sister, who as soon as Grandma returned piped up: “Grandma, Laura threw her food in the trash!”
Grandma looked at me for a moment, then went into the kitchen to investigate. She came back looking very angry. “What have you done?” she shouted. “You naughty girl! That’s a waste of perfectly good food! There are starving children who would be grateful to have that, and you have behaved like an ungrateful brat!”
She came over to me and lifting me under my armpits, she took me across to a straight-backed chair by the wall. “Well, Laura,” Grandma said as she stood me in front of her, “I’ve had to deal before with a problem like this, and I can’t think of a better punishment than the one I gave your mother when she was a naughty girl.”
Without another word, she put her hands on the waistband of the tracksuit bottoms I was wearing and quickly pulled them down to my knees. Then she did the same thing with my panties and put me, bare bottom up, across her knee.
I never dreamed that Grandma could spank so hard, although to tell the truth it would have been worse had it been my mother’s knee I was draped over. Nevertheless, I was a well-spanked little girl and my bare bottom was red hot and covered in handprints.
After the punishment, I was put in the corner with my disgrace on display for everyone to see. “Don’t you dare rub your bottom or move from there until I tell you!” Grandma scolded. I heard Cristina allow herself a discreet giggle. Had my mother been there, she would have been next to have her panties taken down but Grandma let it slide.
Eventually I was brought out of the corner, an apology was extracted from me and Grandma hugged and kissed me as a mark of forgiveness. “You’re going to be a good girl for me from now on, Laura, aren’t you?” she asked. “Yes, Grandma,” I replied.
That was the only time my grandmother spanked me, and it cured me of my fussy eating.
Contributor: Laura