2011

Molly noticed several things. Firstly Christine supervised Alice in the bath. Secondly Alice had a bedtime, 8pm even though it was summer so there was no school. Thirdly that Alice’s footed pajamas were very childish. Molly and Alice had to share a room. I heard that Molly only teased Alice a little but did enjoy being treated as in charge. We had discussed how to deal with Alice with her father over the telephone. He thought what we were doing was drastic but something drastic had to be done. I went to collect Alice at the end of the summer. Christine explained: “Our little girl has behaved much better than before. I only need to give her seven spankings and three mouth soapings. I think that Molly was disappointed. She likes it when Alice is naughty because she gets to watch. “Alice has also had to write about five thousand punishment lines.” I had some accounts of what happened over the telephone. To tell the truth I had found reading out loud very hard. I had to put a lot of effort into it. Alice had also found this hard. Her father had allowed her not to try. Now, Molly found reading out loud easy, easier in fact than ordinary reading. Of course Christine insisted that Alice and Molly take it in turns to read to the younger neighbor kids. It made the short freckled 18 year old feel inferior to the tall 11 year old. Until that summer Alice had worn disposable contact lenses. She is very short sighted. We stopped buying those. Christine describes finding a particularly patronizing optician specializing in children’s needs. Instead of letters he used pictures of things like teddy bears, elephants, cars. He also offered styles of glas-ses which emphasized childish status. Christine told me what she had said to Alice: “If you are a VERY good girl this summer you will get to go back to school. You may even graduate next year.” I arrived on the Saturday morning. Christine remarked: “Alice has been naughty. She borrowed one of Molly’s dresses without her permission. Have you got something to ask your big sister, Alice?” Alice knew it was easier to ask for a spanking and get 1 than to be spanked for not asking for a spanking and to be spanked again for the original offence. “I’ve been a naughty girl. Pretty please spank me very hard.” Alice had graduated to a jumper style dress. It was more what you would expect for a girl between eight and ten. It went below her knees. She wore ankle socks rather than toddler style tights. Once I had her in position I took my time pinning her dress and petticoat out of the way and pulling down her panties, still with cartoon figures on them, down to her knees. I noticed her butt. On the left hand you could see some evidence of what had happened over the last few weeks. The right cheek was almost as white as snow. After 10 minutes she was crying like a baby. Her right bottom cheek was a red as a rose. We had a big lunch with all Alice’s favourite things. Alice did not get to eat anything; she stood in the corner with her panties around her ankles and holding up her dress and petticoat. We then told Molly her story. “So the naughtiest silliest little girl is really 18.” I smiled and said “Yes, she is. Maybe she should be in jail. And we still might have to call the police.” Christine then explained: “You know that my own little girl died when she was a baby. My Alice Jane would be 10. She would start fifth grade. I’ve got her birth certificate. “In our school district you graduate from what they call elementary school at the end of fifth grade. We promised that Alice would get to graduate from school next year. She has been relatively good so she will have a chance to graduate from school, ELEMENTARY school, if you get good enough marks in the tests.” To my surprise it was Brian who informed us of another need to punish Alice: “I understand that you think lying is a particularly bad habit in little girls.” Christine and I agreed. “Alice did you tell the truth when I asked you whether Molly had said you could borrow her dress?” The girl in the corner answered. “No, I did not.” Of course a mouth soaping was called for. I made a suggestion which Molly and Brian agreed to. So I walked Alice up to the bathroom. I put the plastic bib on her. Molly, not quite 12, sat down on a chair. Alice knelt on the floor. She opened her mouth. Actually I think that Molly’s small hands made her more efficient at washing the lies out of our naughty young lady’s mouth. At the end of the proceeding Alice curtsied, apologised and thanked Molly for what she had done. The train journey back was without incident. I showed Alice that I had put the heavy hair brush, a wash cloth and carbolic soap into a bag I carried. I put my hand onto the bag a couple of times when I worried. Alice spent the trip reading “Little Women”, “Good Wives” and other sequels in Louisa May Alcott’s series. Alice fitted into 5th grade surprisingly easily. We had some worries about whether she would reliably get to school. As it happened the elementary school was in walking distance. Usually either Christine, who Alice now addressed as “Mommy”, or I could get her to school. There was one, particularly effective, status reinforcement. It was the fact that we always insisted on firmly holding her hand when we walked her to school. About a dozen other 5th grade Moms also walked their kids to school. Only one other mother insisted on holding onto her 10 year olds hand, and he had some other problems too. We also made sure that Alice was collected from school and walked straight home. Much of the time Christine was able to do this. She could do her lesson preparation at home. Some days I walked her back. When neither of us could manage we asked Norma Johnson, the shop clerk who so approved of her discipline, to baby sit. One afternoon I was a little late. I heard Alice’s voice amongst other loudly singing: “Cry baby bunting, Mommy’s gon a hunting…” Then too they yelled “How’s Betsy Wetsy, do you need your dydees changed?” Alice and four other girls were picking on a young girl who was crying. The victim of the bullying was Jessica Walker. It happened that her older brother, George, was in the clas-s that Christine taught. We found out the whole story. Jessica’s father had become very ill. She was worried he might die. One effect of the stress was bed wetting. A nasty girl called Ann, from Alice’s clas-s saw Jessica’s Mom buying dry nites. Up until that morning we had thought that Alice’s behaviour was improving. I had thought of taking her to the mall as a kind of reward. Now we had found out what a vicious little bully she was that was out of question. -We telephoned George and Jessica’s mother. She agreed to our plans. Christine and I walked Alice to Jessica’s home. She knew what she had to do. She curtsied: “Jessica, I want to say I am very sorry for what I did. I would like you to visit my home at lunch time so you can find out how sorry I am.” George arrived at lunchtime. Just before lunch Alice said: “I’ve been a VERY naughty girl pretty please spank me and wash my mouth out with soap.” Jessica got to watch whilst Alice went over first my knees and then Christine’s. She also came up to the bathroom and watched the mouth soaping. I had thought that Alice had learned her lesson. As instructed she said to Jessica: “And on Monday I will tell Ms Peters what I did and tell her about Barbara, Ann and Darlene’s role in the bullying.” Jessica forgave Alice. We decided to let Alice eat with the rest of us. Again on Monday I was the person who was due to collect Alice from school. I saw her chatting and laughing with Barbara, Ann and Darlene in the corridor. I had a question: “Did you have a chat with Ms Peters?” She hesitated. “I err, I was going to but they’re my friends.” I said clearly: “You lied, that needs to be dealt with here now.” I grabbed her hand and pushed open the girls’ restroom door. “You can’t, not here, not now. PLEASE!” I ignored her pleas. She resisted but it was not hard to get her into position. She was screaming kicking and resisting but the spanking went on. Barbara heard. She encouraged her friends to come in. A first grader also arrived and saw. Jessica told me what happened the next morning. It as during registration Alice put her hand up. She told Ms Peters, in front of the whole class: “Ms Peters, I have been very naughty. I have bullied Jessica for something she cannot help. I made friends with Barbara, Darlene and Ann who joined in.” Now, as I said, this state did believe in occasional use of the paddle. Ms Peters had not used it before in her twelve years of teaching, but faced with such bullying she consulted the principal. All four girls got paddled. It got better. I talked to the mothers of the other girls. The other parents did not believe in hitting kids. However each of them wore a t-shirt the following week saying: “I am a bully and a brat.” Best of all it meant that Alice had to find more suitable friends. One morning Alice insisted that she was very ill and could not go to school. I thought she was lying. I decided to take her to Dr Shah. I had phone ahead and was told that it would be okay. We had to wait most of the morning in a waiting room full of crying babies and their mothers. The first thing the doctor said to my baby sister once she was sitting down in the office was: “I need to take your temperature…” Alice opened her mouth, reluctantly. “Not that way. You had better lie on your front.” She folded her arms and shut her mouth. I lifted her legs so that she went onto her back on the soft flat examining area; I pulled her cartooned panties out of the way. It was just as if it was time for a diaper change. This meant that the good doctor could do put the thermometer in the correct place for an immature person. I thought I had turned things around Alice graduated elementary school. She was not at the top of her class. But well there were some very smart people in that class- for instance Jessica Walker. I guess she tried harder than her first effort at graduating elementary school but she still did not have the love of learning that I would have liked to see Christine and I also insisted that Alice took her share in household chores. We were worried about too much water consumption so we did not buy a dish washer. Since Alice could not drive to the market and frankly could not be trusted to cook she did a lot of the dish washing. She also now knew that her bedroom would be regularly inspected. Alice also learned the proper use of an iron and a vacuum cleaner. She once said: “You’re rich, why don’t you hire an au pair?” That caused one of the few spankings she needed the following spring. Children should NOT criticize adults and juvenile delinquents have no right to criticize anyone. I was making a lot of money. I was able to help Dad start a new business two towns away. He came to visit his daughters quite often. He never failed to say: “Alice, you are incredibly cute.” When she once complained I bought a set of prison orange jump suits. Alice decided that Mary Janes and jumpers looked better on her. Alice did well in Junior High. We had chosen a small school which sometimes allowed kids to skip a year. To be fair to Alice, as she approached her 21st birthday, she was less boy obsessed than the other girls at the school. She did more school- work than other girls. (Nearly all the boys did as little school work as possible.) The plan was that the year of her 21st birthday my sister would graduate from Junior High. We had made plans for her to be at a High school in a slightly different area. We did not want people to notice how little she was growing. I was glad we had a lot of money for another reason. I met a guy called Victor, during a business trip to England. I had thought he wanted marriage. It turned out that Victor wanted mainly to be a daddy. Although his condition did not impair sexual and reproductive functions Victor had barely a year to live. Victor got to see Victoria. He only lived 3 weeks after her Christening but I was glad I planned to take a few years with my daughter rather than working outside. That summer I found I had to supervise two babies. Dad had done some research. He found a genuine and apparently safe medical process for helping breasts to grow. That was to have been Alice’s 21st birthday gift. As things turned out quite different gifts were bought. As it turned out Alice would need to be treated that summer as MUCH less mature. Thinking back maybe Victoria was part of the reason for Alice’s regressive attitude, which we were to find out about. My own boobies, though larger than Alice’s had been less than impressive. Of course they got much better in preparation for Victoria’s needs.  

It’s been a nondescript week, devoid of interesting events.  Even the pee dreams have gone away. Winter is technically here but it’s been slightly unusual so far this year.  Although we rarely experience any truly cold days in our locale (the daytime maximum would only rarely dip below 20C), we can experience chilly nights.  Well, nothing freezes but we’ll close the windows.  So far THIS June it’s been around 23C/24C most days and overnights have been no cooler than say, 16C.  We’re still sleeping with the ceiling fan switched on but that’s probably more to do with my beloved’s post-menopausal challenges with heat dissipation than any real problem with excess warmth. We’re yet to see any real winter yet (dry sunny 21C days followed by crisp 8C nights). Driving this weather are constant sea breezes off a very-close-by warmed ocean.  In addition to unusually mild temperatures, this pattern also brings us near constant rare-for-winter humidity, cloud and showers.  It’s not huge quantities but we haven’t a completely dry day in over a fortnight now.  It’s a bit like Scotland here but with palm trees (and less bin fires). The cloth nappies have been a complete pain with respect to drying them these last few weeks.  We STILL have done nothing about a clothes dryer.  This is in part apathy on my part because I know once my beloved has a dryer, our clothesline will fall into dis-use and also because I’ll have to re-engineer the entire garage to accommodate the thing.  It’s also in part to my beloved’s apathy for the understandable reason that spending over AUD1000 on a clothes dryer provides very little in the way of emotional gratification. So, there have been industrial quantities of nappies on clothes horses beneath ceiling fans in the range of spare bedrooms available to us.  To be fair, my beloved has tolerated this without comment although it’s far from ideal. Fun fact: I suspect that cloth nappies that haven’t been line-dried can be a tiny bit more prone to odour when wet: laundry sanitiser or not.  It’s not a huge issue but I’ve recently noticed that I can sometimes smell my wet night nappy (faintly) when I wake in the morning AND that these have been sub-optimally dried. I’ve also been finding the cloth nappies irksome with respect to working around the house. Reconstruction tasks at hand after the replacement of rather a lot of fencing have included repair and renewal of the various bits of household infrastructure that were attached to the old fence.  This has involved drop saws, drills and frequent trips to Bunnings (think: “B&Q” or “Home Depot”). Wearing cloth nappies to Bunnings is really just about the risk of looking obvious.  Large, overhanging t-shirts and dark colours help.  I wouldn’t wear that gear to a family funeral but Bunnings I can get away with. Wearing cloth nappies getting up and down off the ground outside hauling power tools is just extremely awkward.  Nothing reminds a wet cloth nappy that it has a hot date with gravity quicker than a couple of el-fresco gym squats in the garden.  It’s also more difficult to twist and turn with nearly a kilogram of thick towelling wrapped around your groin and bum.  I don’t know how babies manage it. I’m back in disposables today as it is washing day.  Although it was remarkably rain-free the sky looked like a pile of wet terries.  My fancy solar power system sat on our roof depreciating in silence.  As we speak, 3 day’s worth of cloth nappies are now basking beneath a ceiling fan in a spare room. Hopefully I will recover my cloth nappy mojo by Monday.

It's morning, of course I'm wet, and....

A typical early morning in a wet and now messy pink MegaMax diaper.

Wow, that's an eclectic mix of sub-optimal things right there!  Hopefully you're due for some better news.  Will they be able to do the heart valve trans-catheter?  From what I've heard that makes that job a LOT simpler and easier for you.  Open heart surgery sucks.