Hi Sandman,
Don't tell anyone I did this...
Several months ago as I was leaving the video store, the lady in front of me had a young boy (probably about 3) in the midst of a level three hissy fit because mommy had refused to buy him the handfulls of candy he had grabbed from the counter (curse you Blockbuster for putting that up front - as if the supermarket checkout wasn't enough of a gauntlet). She then began trying to chivvy him out of the store, whereupon he fell on the floor in the exit kicking and screaming at the top of his lungs "I WANT THE CAAAAAAAAANDY!!!". Meanwhile young mommy is standing over him saying, "Chandler, is that any way to act? Chandler calm down, we need to go now. Please stop Chandler... etc." As though it were a conversation at a customer service counter. Meanwhile people were backing up behind her and Les Enfant Terrible because no one could get out past "Chandler." I don't know what I was thinking but I moved past her, picked Chandler up and knelt down in front of him and said in Daddy tone, "CHANDLER, LOOK AT ME, IF YOU DON'T STOP THIS TANTRUM RIGHT NOW YOUR MOMMY IS GOING TO GIVE YOU A BIG SPANKING WHEN YOU GET HOME"
I don't know who was more shocked, the kid, or the mommy, but his eyes got huge at the word "spanking", he stopped immediately, and mommy was able to take him by the hand out to the car. The sad thing is that a grandma actually said to me, "Thank you for doing that, I'd be afraid of getting sued if I put my hands on somebody elses child." Ah well, I guess that didn't occur to me until after I done it, we've become so hyper-sensitive at this point that something as simple as parental discipline is becoming well nigh impossible, even illegal in some countries. The sad thing is that the chastening of a child is a sign of parental love - it's absence a sign of neglect.
- SEAGOON