The danger of a hot wheel track

When I was around 6 years old, I somehow managed to get myself in trouble and get grounded--no leaving our yard to go to my friend's house. There was a 3 acre vacant lot between our two houses. I stared toward my buddy's place across that lot and noticed all the cedar trees growing there. I thought to myself, "If I sneak from tree to tree, I can make it to David's house, and mom won't see me as I hide behind each tree."

I'm not sure, but I think the theme from "Mission Impossible" started reverberating in my head. A quick peak around, and I was off on my short legs and bare feet to accomplish my secret mission. I scooted from tree to tree. Another peek--no parental authority detected--the biggest cedar was my next target.

I ran to that cedar and moved as fast as I could around the tree...only to meet my mother running straight at me from the other side. BUSTED! Her eyes were wide and she was swinging an orange Hotwheel track at my behind as I turned tail to flee my impending doom. Chunky with short legs, I fled toward our yard...barely staying out of range of that track. I was making tracks to avoid that track.

I made it all the way to the steps of our back deck. It was then that I learned that my short legs could not outrun mom on steps. The hotwheel track hit its mark. My doom was sealed. In that moment, I learned the danger of a hotwheel track. If you are going to break the rules, but you lack the wheels, you're going to lose the race with the track.

My mom is the best. She turns 90 in a month, and she can still catch me with a track. She deserves a trophy.

I will never forget the "plop, thunk" of my mom chasing me and my brother with a flip flop in her hand.

I can't tell you how many yard sticks my mom broke over my backside growing up. I guess I was a slow learner. I thank the Good Lord for giving me such great parents though. They brought us three kids up right, hard head and all.

Mom and Dad did not spare the Rod on us.
We had it coming.
All 6 of us had everything we needed

My Mom’s weapon of choice was a pink hairbrush.
One day the handle broke off.
We were elated

so it would appear that a lot of people hear are not from the "time out generation"

My dad was a policeman and I had three bothers… that equals a lot of heavy leather on the backsides… Guess what? we earned it! and we all grew up just fine (3 of four in LE)…

I've read, and heard, stories like that many times. Always amazed me.

I never ran from my Mama or Daddy. "You can run boy, but I know where you live!" "You got to come home sometime!!"

Whatever you did, if you think Mama is mad now, run away from her, and when you come back home two or three hours later that mad has been building all the time you've gone.

I would just go in there and play elbows on the toy box and wait. Their weapon of choice - Daddy's razor strop.

My Dad traveled a good bit for work and there was an almost ceremonial “hand off” of his belt to Mom the night before he left. She took her shots as necessary. Then we got “seconds when Dad got home. My Granny was a “go outside and cut yourself a switch” lady. And don’t be bringing some candy-ass twig back either!

Mom would wait until Dad came home so that the suspense and dread would build through the day. Then Dad got the ping pong paddle out. I did not need too many meetings with that to straighten up.

My parents just hoped I'd come home when it got dark. Sometimes they kept hoping late into the night. Yes, hairbrush--the correction tool of choice for mom.

This was mom's weapon of choice, (Damn trip to the Smokie Mountains). Mom wasn't very big and didn't move very quickly (she had Polio as a teen) but you better not run away from her when the time came or you would pay for it.

Mom didn't believe in any of that "wait until your father gets home" stuff unless I had done something especially egregious.
Dad usually used the same paddle but then I have VERY vivid memories of the few times when I really crossed a line and his belt was pressed into use. The worst thing I could do was something that publicly embarrassed my parents or the family.
Other than breaking out in a sweat and having a pronounced twitch when I hear "certain" sounds, I don't have any negative lasting side effects.
I never got paddled when I didn't absolutely deserve it and it was NEVER abuse!

Minus the rubber band and ball...

I'm not going to debate whether spanking is useful or not, but I can provide some counter-examples. None of our three kids was spanked, and they turned out just fine, giving the late Mrs. swsig and me few problems. Our son got a PhD in math, and became an actuary. While our oldest daughter played in a rock band in any number of dive bars throughout high school, she became a CPA, and she is currently a hospital administrator. Our youngest daughter became an elementary school teacher.

Our seven grandchildren were similarly unspanked, and they're all knocking it out of the ballpark. Our son and his wife had three high-spirited girls, and spoiled them outrageously. When they turned 16, they each got a car, and were allowed to run around Kansas City all night long if they wished, and nary a harsh word was spoken. Nevertheless, they managed to survive and turned out just fine. Their oldest has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and is the critical care unit pharmacist for a major hospital. Their middle daughter is an MD, is licensed and board certified in internal medicine, and is currently a fellow and clinical instructor in pulmonology at the Ohio State University Medical School Hospital. Their youngest recently received her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and is now building her practice.

Our oldest daughter had a boy and a girl. He got his bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and is currently a grad student in geographic information science at Portland State. He's married to a playwright with a Tony-nominated Broadway hit show to her credit, but most importantly, she's expecting my first great-grandchild! His sister has the most traditional life so far. She's married to a software engineer for Google. While she has a bachelor's degree in psychology, she's a stay at home mom to their four dogs. However, she's also learning carpentry from her father-in-law, and together they're remodeling the house.

Our youngest daughter also had a boy and a girl. He is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School, currently working for a high-zoot law firm in New York City. Although he's only 26, his "entry-level" salary is well into six figures. However, with his employer's blessing, he is taking a year off (and a huge salary cut) to become a law clerk for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is specializing in a new area of law, the legal and ethical aspects of hardwiring computer technology to the human brain. I believe he'll become increasingly in demand as this field advances. I'm already calling him "Mr. Chief Justice". His sister is a very talented artist who, unfortunately, has significant chronic health issues. Nevertheless, she's persevered and is now a college junior majoring in graphic design.

Now, did I directly address the spanking issue? Not really. Did I use this thread as a flimsy excuse to brag on my kids and grandkids? Yer durn tootin'!

My father was a brutal disciplinarian, I was terrified of him
But the worst corporal punishment I ever got was my mom slapping my face when she thought id shoved my sister . I loved my mom and the thought that I’d disappointed her was much worse than a leather belt swung by an angry millwright
Took me 45-50 years to forgive my father but mom and I were and still are very close

kraynky said:

I can't tell you how many yard sticks my mom broke over my backside growing up. I guess I was a slow learner. I thank the Good Lord for giving me such great parents though. They brought us three kids up right, hard head and all.

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Used to tick my mom off when we laughed when it broke.

Mama had a butter and molasses handled fuller brush when I was born . By the time I was six she had knocked all of the bristles out of that brush on my hind end . After that it was belts and switches . Got my last licking at fourteen if I remember correctly. Took a while to get me settled in but she finally got it done. She was my mothers mother and the one who raised me and two of my brothers and one sister. My mother and father never whipped me that I can ever remember. Mama on the other hand handled whipping a kid just like you would a dog. right then and there . She didn't care where you were or who watched . I gat several on the side of the road because that was where I was when I messed up . Wasn't any " You just wait till I get you home" , you got it right then so you knew exactly what you were getting it for. If you cried or throwed a fit you got whipped for that too. Never got one that I didn't earn though . That was how she was raised.

I, too, am painfully familiar with the effectiveness of a length of hot Wheels track in modifying behavior.

It works very well indeed.

My parents used a fly swatter and leather belt depending on the offense. My grandmother( moms) used to make my cousin and I go cut switches from a tree so she could switch us. By chance we would bring a flimsy switch she made us go get a bigger one. Things we did would land kids in jail now days. They lived on a hill with a long concrete driveway down to the main street. Cousin and I would go pick up all the bad apples below the trees, put them in a large bucket and dump them down the driveway when traffic was coming. After few times the Cops showed up and cousin and I hid. The fun we had… back in the 50s early 60s………

BloodyThumb said:

Minus the rubber band and ball...


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This was my Mom's tool of choice also. I quickly learned that I didn't want these around to play with because after the elastic broke they were repurposed!