Punishment Night

As I was tying Lion to the bed last night he told me his camera was on his dresser in case I wanted to take a picture of his red buns. I hadn’t thought about it. I rarely think about taking pictures of the things we do. So I took that to mean that he wanted a picture.  No problem. (Click here to see it.)

I knew he had been dreading punishment all day. In his email early in the day he made it sound like I would leave him bruised and bloodied. As if this was the punishment to end all punishments. I’m not sure why. He had one infraction on the list. It wasn’t even a particularly terrible one. He’d made me feel bad. And? Nope. That was it. So why would this punishment be worse than any other? I’m wondering if part of the punishment is the time leading up to the actual swats. You know, you crashed Dad’s car and you know you’re in for it, but once your imagination takes hold you’re sure Dad’s going to kick you out of the house and disown you. In reality the repair costs $500 which you pay him back a little at a time from your cashier job.

Once I finished with Lion’s very hard swats I took a picture. He wasn’t particularly red. He said if I did more swats but maybe not as hard it would show up better in the picture. Am I punishing him so he remembers what he did and, hopefully, doesn’t do it again? Or am I punishing him for the camera? His red butt does remind me that he’s probably still feeling it, but between feeling it and seeing it, I’d rather have him feel it longer. I don’t know if a few harder swats make him feel it longer or not. I’m still experimenting. I know they hurt like hell at the time, based on his yelling and squirming.

Lion wonders if I should be punishing as he makes mistakes. Maybe what I should do is ask him what’s on his list more often. Even on non-punishment nights. That might convince him that I’m paying attention. Whomping him on specific days gives me time to consider the “crime”. I was really mad when he did X, but after talking to him about it I understand why he did it and I’m not so mad right now. Y didn’t bother me very much at the time, but after thinking about it, it’s really starting to piss me off. I don’t care why he did Z, he should never do that again. For now, we’ll stick to Mondays and Thursdays as punishment days.