My mother told me that the biggest benefit of punishment at home was because as bad as a spanking on the behind might be, it is not nearly as bad as what awaits worse deeds in the world.
And, as it turns out, she was right. I got my ass whooped. A few times I think too severely. But I have not been arrested, convicted or been to jail or prison.
She expected me to not misbehave and wind up in jail. And when her arthritis got too bad to wield a belt, a step-father could step in it and deliver the swats.
My first step-father, Gerald, Gerry for short, was a second class boiler tech aboard the USS Ogden. Wiry guy who was nothing but muscle. And he liked those wide leather belts popular in the 70s.
When I got to be above 6 feet tall in middle school, it was getting past the time that spankings could actually hurt me. By then, I could always hit the highway and starve. Per her words, "my way or the highway."
It was easier to behave and study and have a roof over my head. And criminal life did not appeal to me.
And the first person to accuse me of having "white privilege" I will call an idiot to his face. At one point in time, I was living in Basswood Manor, as a 13 year old, in Lewisville, Texas. It was government subsidized housing because that was all that my mother could afford on her own.
So, having a hard life and being raised most often by a single mother, I still did not go into a life of crime.
Then, again, the culture I was raised with was about hard work and honor.
As opposed to the time we lived in South Dallas near I-30 and Samuel. And I had to go to John B Hood Middle School. They got the "hood" part right.
Dallas Police in riot gear standing guard at bus loadings. Fights would break out on campus and it was a largely amish population. As soon as my mother could manage, we moved to Lewisville. At least in the government housing there, people were not fighting and pulling guns on each other in the middle of the night.
So, this kid needs to face the music. Not having consequences is not solving the problem.
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