One evening, Tabitha Greene was scrolling through a parenting forum she frequented when she came across a topic which intrigued her.
"Have you ever had to spank someone? What happened?"
The answer, of course, was yes -- but while others talked about disciplining their children, that wasn't the story she wanted to tell. For whatever reason, a different one reared its head in her mind. One she'd always wanted to tell but never been able to get off her chest. So, after looking through a few other people's stories, she started typing and before she knew what had happened she'd written two-thousand words and had no idea where the time went.
"It's only the most exceptional of circumstances that I physically chastise my kids -- but they're not the story. Somehow, the story here is their tutor.
I'd spent WEEKS looking for a decent tutor for my two girls and I thought I'd finally found one in this young girl called Erin. She was 18 and a student living locally -- I saw her A-Level results and was very impressed so, I suppose very foolishly, I assumed she could somehow transfer those grades to my daughters. Erin didn't stop me from thinking that, of course -- she was advertising herself on Facebook as a tutor and had a glossy cover image which I suppose is all you need to trick rubes like me!
Once we sat down together in my living room for an interview, I found myself quite charmed -- Erin was a sweet girl, obviously quite nervous, but she knew her stuff and impressed me with all the work she'd put in to learn good tutorship techniques. It was more than I'd expected -- if I'm honest all I'd thought the tutor would amount to was a glorified babysitter who would magically bring my girls' grades up. Erin, though, didn't seem to need magic -- she appeared to have the skills. I even think I found myself a bit intimidated by her, which is very silly -- she was just a very pretty girl and having her over may have reminded me that I wasn't her age anymore. She was petite with some curves and brown freckles around her nose and inner cheeks, and auburn hair cut short in that student-y sort of way, so I even worried for a moment that my husband might find his eyes wondering. I was a little embarrassed to even entertain the idea.
Still, it was good for my girls, I thought -- having a tutor close to their age rather than another pushing-fifty housewife must surely have been preferable. We talked at length about our lives, as well, and I made a silly joke about how I'd expect Erin to spank my girls if they misbehaved. She stared at me with terror in her eyes before I laughed and assured her it was a joke -- it took her quite a bit of time to relax, nonetheless, and I sensed that here was someone who could very easily be the biggest pushover you've ever met. Notably, Erin also let slip about her ongoing money trouble -- renting in London isn't easy for anyone let alone an Egyptology student. I wonder now if a twang of pity motivated me into hiring her.
My girls had practice exams that Spring and it'd be the first (and only) real dress rehearsal for Erin's methods. I tried not to hover when she was "in session," as I briefly referred to their lessons before my husband told me it sounded strange, but whenever I passed the bedroom door it didn't sound like a lot of teaching was going on. At least once I thought I could hear them just watching a film! A little part of me fretted that I was being rinsed -- but even though I was tempted on more than one occasion to burst into the room and find out just what was going on, I held myself back. My husband talked me down, assuring me that if Erin seemed to know what she was doing then that was because Erin knew what she was doing, and so I left it be. Every Wednesday evening, Erin would arrive, swap pleasantries, go upstairs, come back down around two hours later, and leave with £40 in her pocket. I was SO sure that I was getting something for the money.