Red Bottom Club

DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS “Difficulties give way to diligence. Objections are often traceable to ignorance of facts.”

When I was a child, my mum was good friends with a lady called Mrs Leese – I think they had worked together before they both left to concentrate on … Read more

David recalls how his mother’s younger sister came to stay to look after the family during an illness – and how it resulted in two very well-smacked bottoms!

PERSISTENCY IN SPITE OF AUTHORATATIVE DECISION. Perseverance and determination are very desirable qualities in the child as well as in the adult, but persistency in having one’s own way regardless … Read more

Probably somewhat unusually by the 90s, Mary and I were sometimes smacked by several family members in addition to Mum and Dad. Our stepmum and stepdad, granny and Mum’s sister … Read more

In spite of him usually being far more patient and good-natured than Mum, there was one area where our father’s tolerance was surprisingly lower – bath time.  Being a hard … Read more

HOLDING BREATH. A baby, or even a child several years of age, may, through temper, hold the breath. I strongly advise spanking for this practice. I certainly disapprove of the … Read more

From around the age of seven to around 12 years old, I had the same girl babysit me when my parents needed to go out and leave me. Looking back … Read more

In this interview from some years ago, we chatted to Australian mum Cindy about her use of the cane on the bottoms of her two older boys.

TELLING OF UNTRUTHS. Making the child truthful is one of  the hardest tasks of child training. Perhaps in no period of the Christian era has untruthfulness been so common and … Read more

Martin, the father of two young boys, talks about his use of the slipper and how, as head of the household, he takes responsibility for disciplining his children.

DISRESPECT. Disrespect not unfrequently results in sauciness, contradictions, flippant remarks, answers with no consideration of the one answered, and, finally, no consideration of age or sex. Where there is disrespect … Read more

OBEDIENCE! Why is it that mother or governess finds it necessary repeatedly to remind a child of his misconduct ? Why so many interruptions of social conversation or of business … Read more

In Canada, children were accustomed to receive the school strap across their hands for misbehaviour. But as this anonymous contributor points out, at home, some kids felt the benefit of … Read more

The time when mild hand spankings over mummy’s knee come to an end and are replaced by something altogether more formal and painful is a landmark in a child’s experience … Read more

DISOBEDIENCE. Of course many different acts of misbehaviour come from disobedience. The reader will notice that I place disobedience before disrespect, because often disrespect is an outgrowth of tolerated disobedience. … Read more

Editor’s note: Chapter XIV is by far the longest chapter of Mariam Fredrick’s book on child discipline, I have divided this chapter into several different posts to make it easier … Read more

I was raised in Lancashire, England, during the 1970s and at that time, my mum would often look after the little girl next door as well as me. Lucy’s father … Read more

The usual mother-in-law jokes aside, I have a great relationship with Matthew, who is married to my eldest daughter Jennifer. But for a few years, there was a bone of … Read more

I was brought up in a very middle-class family in Surrey, England in the 1960s and my parents were, to put it mildly, very conservative and maybe slightly behind the … Read more

From the emails we receive, we know that many men are aroused when they overhear mothers discussing matters of family discipline with others of the fair sex. Ian is one … Read more

Impressionable and imaginative children often get up to the same mischief they read about in comics or see on television. But such copycat behaviour earned both Matthew and his sister … Read more

In an era of school corporal punishment when most schoolgirls got the cane on the hand, Vanessa was one of the minority who had to bend over to receive it, … Read more

I was brought up in Singapore and as you may know, even today the cane is a popular deterrent with parents there in shaping their children’s behaviour. I was an … Read more

I was over visiting my friend Carol when this happened. Carol and I are old school pals and she has two kids – at the time of this story, her … Read more

I think nearly all your stories on Maman have either mum or dad dispensing discipline to their naughty child, but in my own upbringing, my parents frequently ‘collaborated’ in the … Read more

An audio version of the first of Lina’s two-part recollections of spanking both as the child receiving it, and the mother giving it.

For those of us interested in spanking, seeing someone else receiving it was extremely memorable – but so was walking in on the immediate aftermath of the punishment, as Charles … Read more

Toilet accidents – and perhaps a spanking when they happen – are something we tend to associate with younger children. But John recalls one memorable occasion when he found out … Read more

In this insight into her privileged upbringing in the New England of the 1930s, Gigi recalls how carelessness cost her some new clothes – and a very sore bottom from … Read more

The spanking games we play as children, and our experiences of parental discipline, can often have a major influence on our developing sex life as we become adults. This anonymous … Read more

The following is derived from an informal conversation I had with Marjorie back in the late 1980s. By that time, this mother-of-five, who lived in Derby, was also a grandmother … Read more

My father was an officer in the Royal Navy, and as such he was away a great deal, half way around the world. This left the discipline of myself and … Read more

Looking back, I probably started spanking my daughter quite late. It would have been better if she had had her first trip over Mom’s knee when she was a pre-schooler, … Read more

Martin is married to Louise and the couple live in West Sussex. At the time of the following interview, they had two boys – Rory, aged nine, and six-year-old Danny. … Read more

We get a glimpse of life in colonial life in Africa as a young boy is thoroughly smacked in front of the servants – and ends up being beaten by … Read more