I was already nine years old by the time my brother Craig was born, so he was always the baby of the family in my eyes. I’d had my own share of mild smacked bottoms from our mother growing up, but these were already quite rare by the time he arrived in our lives.
By contrast, I witnessed many of his own punishments as mother began to spank him from about three years old, and the sight of Craig’s bare bottom across our mother’s knee, as she smacked him soundly, became a familiar one. I think mother felt boys needed more corporal punishment than girls, and certainly he got far more sore bottoms than I ever recall getting in my younger days.