The last time my daughter, Lee-Anne, got into real trouble with me was when she was fifteen. I received a phone call from a friend telling me that she and her best friend, Sophia, had been caught shoplifting. It was one of those cases where it was just for fun and a laugh until they got caught.
I asked my friend if it was OK if I was allowed to handle it. If so, I would take care of both girls, seeing as how they were in it together. He didn't mind as it saved him paperwork and we both knew I'd owe him one. He put my daughter on the phone and I gave her some instructions.
Short and sweet, I told her she had ten minutes to get home and that she'd better have Sophia with her when she arrived. They made it in time and I ordered them to my bedroom. Once there I didn't muck around. They knew they'd screwed up. I was just going to reinforce the idea.
Lee-Anne went across my knee and I didn't give a damn about her age. She got soundly spanked on her bare bottom. The fact that it was happening in front of her friend was probably the most humiliating part of it. Daughter done, I turned on Sophia, ordering her to bend over.
She was horrified.
"You can't spank me," she told me. "I'm not your daughter."
"Sophia, I don't care," I replied. "Now bend over."
The look on her face was wonderful to behold, but she went across my knee and received the same treatment. Afterwards I read them the riot act and grounded them for two weeks.
Sophia was still defiant.
"You can't ground me," she said. "Only my parents can ground me."
"You may feel free to discuss your grounding with your parents if you wish," I informed her, "but if I find you have not obeyed the grounding I will discuss it with them. Your choice."
I got killer looks from two young misses but they both took the grounding. I sometimes wondered what Sophia's parents thought when she stayed home for two weeks.
That was a few years back and they apparently took the lesson to heart. This isn't to say that they didn't get up to the occasional mischief and got yelled at but they made sure they didn't do anything major. (Or if they did, they took care not to get caught.) Now they were eighteen, still friends, and turning into a couple of very fine young women.
Sophia turned up at my house the other day after work. (Her work, not mine. I was working from home at the time.) She was expecting to find Lee-Anne at home but I had some bad news for her.
"You're out of luck, Sophia. Lee-Anne just called. The trains are screwed up and she probably won't be home for another hour. Feel free to make yourself at home if you want to wait for her."
Sophia decided she did want to wait and wandered off to Lee-Anne's room while I returned to my office. Shortly afterwards I left my office, went to the front room, and turned down the volume on the music player. Sophia grumped but I ignored that and went back to my office.
It wasn't entirely unexpected when the volume crept up again but it wasn't too bad so I let that go. Sophia then came into my office and said she was making coffee and did I want any.
"Not right now," I told her, indicating the monitor. "I'm just a little busy."
She wandered off and came back shortly after, drinking her coffee and wanting to talk. I explained that I really did want to get the job I was doing finished. Preferably today. She just smiled and wandered out again.
Then it was the TV. The music had been turned off but the TV was on, loudly. Who wants to listen to Dr Phil yelling at some idiot and telling them why they're an idiot? Not me. Once again it was into the front room to turn down the volume.