This is a true story that occurred just last night. Although I did not witness an actual spanking take place the threat and promise of one and the discipline issued by the mother was quite extraordinary.
I recently leased a commercial building for a non-profit arts organization and scheduled a meeting with the manager of the building to go over a number of technical matters and concerns of both parties. The meeting was scheduled at her office, literally next door to our new space. She arrived at the meeting with her three young children in tow. The eldest son was named Alexander, but she called him only Xander. He was about ten or eleven years old, short cropped sandy brown hair, quite thin and tall for his age. His younger brother was named Trevor and was most like eight years old or perhaps seven. He was quite small with thick, wavy brown hair and green eyes. He was quite striking really. Their little sister was about four or five and in a pretty pink dress with short straight hair and resembled Scout from to Kill A Mockingbird.
While we were going over my liability policy a fight erupted in the corner of the room with Trevor and Xander punching each other, Xander sitting on his brother's chest and pounding his brother into the carpet. Their mother sprang into action breaking them apart with one shrill command "Break it up you two, Now!" Xander quickly got off his brother and his mother grabbed him by the wrist furiously shaking him violently as she yelled at him. "That's it! I've had it with you two fighting. Go kneel in the corner both of you now! I said now!" Both boys sprang up and went to opposite corners of the office and knelt down with their noses against the wall and their hand clasped behind their backs as if they'd both done it a hundred times before.
"Now stay their and don't move if you know what's good for you....Just wait til we get home. Your father's not going to like this one bit"
She then apologized to me and I said not to give it another thought. We continued talking and I could hear and see that over in the corner Trevor was crying. Once again his mother like a cobra struck out her venomous words "What did I tell you about crying? Your too big a boy to be acting like a baby. You don't hear your brother crying. Now stop it right this instant or I'll give you something to cry about. You want me to get my purse?" she asked with an ominous tone only her children could understand, but my mind went racing with the possibilities. "No mam" the boy sniffled wiping his eyes with his arm, but not having much success as he was now weeping. His mother got up and went over to the boy and whispered something in his ear and the boy once again wiped his eyes and tried to gain control. As she knelt up she smacked the back of his head and said "Now be quiet and stop embarrassing me."
She came back and we continued our meeting for the next twenty minutes or so. When we were through she told the boys to get and for all of them to gather their things as they were going home. Trevor didn't move. Apparently he had resolved to stay their and defy his mother or perhaps he was frozen in fear of what waited for him at home or from whatever was in that purse. But he didn't budge. She yelled for him to get up say "Come on were leaving" she then said "You want to stay here all night?" He still didn't respond. "Very well suit yourself you can just stay here until your father comes to get you!" With that a waive of panic sprang over the boy and he shot up. As he approached his mother she grabbed his arm violently and shook him saying "What has gotten into you? How many times do we have to punish you? Come on!" she commanded as she pushed him out the door locking it behind her. The three kids stood next to the car. "Kids, you want em?" she jokingly offered. Then she turned and pressed the button on her key chain to turn off the alarm and unlock the doors. The children sprang in and buckled up. As soon as she closed the door I saw her turn over the drivers seat and smack Trevor three times in the head and arms yelling at him and warning "Just you wait buddy boy, just you wait!"