To Swat or Not to Swat

Lion fell yesterday and hurt his ribs. He was in a fair amount of pain. We didn’t go to the casino. We didn’t do a “just because” spanking. We didn’t play. He feels a little better today after taking some pain pills last night to help him sleep.

We were supposed to go away this weekend. Given the fact that Lion was hurt, I’m glad we had already decided not to go. However, I took today off so we could spend some time together. We’ll probably hit the casino later. Tomorrow is waxing day if Lion feels up to it. There’s never anything written in stone when we make plans. I’ve lived long enough to know that things don’t always go as planned. I tend to go with the flow.

Based on Lion’s post this morning, he wants me to jump right in the deep end with respect to punishing him. He doesn’t care if I’ve had a bad day, and I’m not really punishing him for annoying me so much as taking out my frustrations about something at work. I don’t know if I can do that. I can probably get to the point that I can punish him for annoying me, but if I think that he’s annoyed me only because I’m already annoyed, I can’t do that. It’s not fair.

When people come to work and allow their personal problems to interfere with their job, they’re told to leave their problems at the door. Why would it be different for home? Shouldn’t I leave my work problems at the door? I mean, I can vent about things, but as soon as it starts to intrude on home life, it needs to be turned off. Isn’t that part of the work-life balance? Lion seems to be saying no. It shouldn’t matter where the rage is coming from as long as he did something to deserve punishment.

Who decides what deserves punishment? I thought it was me. Shouldn’t I be the one to decide that his comment/action annoyed me only because I was already annoyed? What if he says or does the same thing the next day when I’m not frustrated about work? Maybe it doesn’t bother me then. I think it’s inconsistent to punish him one day and not the other for doing the same thing. Clearly, this is not an easy problem to solve.