As a small child, spankings were frequent for my brother and me. As the oldest, I always had to take the blame for everything. One day I was in my room – I believe I was six at the time, and my brother was three – and I was doing my first grade homework when he walked in. I had my prized crayons out and was colouring carefully in the lines of a worksheet I had out.
Jon asked if he could colour too, and in my grown-up, big girl voice I told him that babies can’t play with crayons. He was very upset and tears trickled down his three-year-old face. Soon, he was bawling so much that it drew the attention of our mother.