When I see my neighbor, who has now become Obama's deputy chief of staff, I find it very difficult not to throw myself at him and beg him to take me with him to work.

You and everyone else, Sparky: [link]

We were never spanked, but our mom threatened to "spank us with a wooden spoon" a few times in early childhood when we were doing something particularly awful and wouldn't stop. We didn't even have any especially big wooden spoons in the house, and in fact none of us ever got so much as a single swat from either parent, ever, but man did we ever live in dire fear of the wooden spoon.

As older kids, we got the occasional grounding or loss of TV privileges, and one brother got grounding plus therapy for some really egregious stuff that was clearly a furious yell for help, but by and large we were boring little parental approval seekers who didn't do much to warrant punishment once we got old enough to reason with. Much like Sparky's family, disapproval, disappointment and loss of trust were more devastating than any actual brute-force thing either parent could have inflicted on us.

Ooh, my boss was out of here at 5:00, and if I give it another minute, I'll be the last one here in my department. LOVE THAT. I mean, I love leaving relatively early, but still coming across like I'm putting in the extra effort.

Not that I am.

But still.

We were never spanked, but our mom threatened to "spank us with a wooden spoon" a few times in early childhood when we were doing something particularly awful and wouldn't stop. We didn't even have any especially big wooden spoons in the house, and in fact none of us ever got so much as a single swat from either parent, ever, but man did we ever live in dire fear of the wooden spoon.

Huh. My mom used to threaten us with the wooden spoon as well. Once she spanked me with it, but I was wearing diapers so it didn't hurt at all. She spanked my brother once with it, and it broke, causing him to laugh.

We mocked the wooden spoon.

I won't get into my biological's mother's approach to "discipline".

But I lived for a long time with my beloved Aunt Sharon, and she spanked me one time. I still remember it. It was for mouthing off at her, and she cried when she delivered the spanking. It upset me to no end that I had caused her such grief, and I never mouthed off to her again.

At the same time, I went to a private Christian fundie church and was spanked with a wooden board that had holes in it (it hurt like HELL) 3 times in the one school year that I attended ICC. ALL three times were for being caught either kissing or holding hands with a boy (I was 11).

Cheetah cubs.

Awwwww, cute. Thanks for the link, Sumi. Neat that the zoo has a place that allows the cheetahs to run as fast as they would in the wild.

We didn't even have any especially big wooden spoons in the house

They don't have to be big. It stings.

Not to imply that I was mistreated. I was spanked, not beaten. I can only think of one time I didn't deserve it.

At the same time, I went to a private Christian fundie church and was spanked with a wooden board that had holes in it (it hurt like HELL) 3 times in the one school year that I attended ICC.

I don't know how much I hear that the lack of this is what is wrong with the schools.

One bad thing my dad used to do... When I started 7th grade, all of a sudden I developed a fairly bad stutter. He used to get very angry when I stuttered, and when I did stutter he'd try to force me to say what I was trying to say without the stutter. Needless to say his approach made things much worse for me.