Broken Windows

You may get the impression that Mrs. Lion and I consider domestic discipline more of a game than a key part of our lifestyle. Yesterday, she wrote about our spanking experiment. That was not part of domestic discipline. It was a BDSM exercise to try to learn more about my physical reaction to being spanked. It was instructive. For whatever physiological reason, I don’t feel lasting effects from most spanking, even if administered firmly. I certainly feel the pain as I am swatted and I do feel aftereffects for a short time when it is done. I also don’t turn a very dark shade of red.

This has been true as long as I have bottomed. I don’t have a leather butt. I haven’t been spanked all that much in my life. I can’t explain why I am like that. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t feel every bit of the sensation Mrs. Lion administers. I do. I may even be a bit of a spanking wimp. The fact I don’t turn very red or bruise easily doesn’t change how each swat feels.

Since domestic discipline is only interested in the value punishment has in correcting behavior, none of the stuff we were trying is even a little relevant. If I dread being punished by Mrs. Lion (which I do), and I am sufficiently uncomfortable when she spanks me, then the punishment is effective. I try very hard to avoid the feel of her paddles.

Last night I received some correction. After I returned home from my trip, I failed assure that she had begun eating first. I just forged ahead and took the first mouthful. Not a horrible crime you may imagine, but we disagree. Eating first shows disrespect and inattention to my lioness. Even worse, in my excitement to tell her something. I interrupted her. That’s very disrespectful. So I received a very painful reminder to be more careful in the future.

Over the last year or two, I’ve discovered that I need a much firmer hand than I would have imagined. Just four days away from home was enough for me to “forget” my rules. More seriously, over time my obedience can get very sloppy. I wrote about how I have gradually “stretched” my obedience to the nudity-at-home rule.

This can seem trivial. In some respects it is. But consider how many couples stop having regular sex, or for that matter, meaningful conversations, simply because things slip a way slowly enough to not be noticeable until things get out of hand.

We sometimes get comments that express concern about such severe punishment for such trivial offenses. Is eating first really worth a spanking that makes me scream and squirm? Well, yes it is. The real offense isn’t eating first, it’s forgetting what I agreed to do. It’s a little like the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement: If you punish minor crimes, like breaking a window, the offender will learn the consequences of breaking the law early before doing something much more serious.

The same is true of us. Small breeches in respect or obedience if corrected swiftly and strictly, will prevent further, more serious issues later. The nudity rule is a case in point. It was no big deal if I took out the garbage, wandered around the house, did things in the kitchen before stripping. Over the years my clothes came off when it was convenient for me, not immediately after I arrived home.

It wasn’t an intentional effort to slowly erode a rule to make things easier for me. It just “happened” and was unnoticed by either of us. So, I suggested we get much stricter. Now I have to undress the instant I come in the door. No exceptions. Any failure to do so will earn a spanking. Right Mrs. Lion

I’m not trying to find reasons to get spanked. I hate them! But I recognized that painful as it probably will be, I must have no slack. I think that is true of others too. Clear boundaries with swift and sure consequences from crossing them are the only way to keep things from eroding. Time has shown that to be true for me, at least.