Family power structures (re written re post)

[derry-boychild]

FAMILY POWER STRUCTURES

Introduction:

This story will be told through the eyes of different people. It is quite long. I have slightly re-written it. I originally posted it a few years ago. There will be lots to interest readers here but not so much in the first part. It set in Britain in the 1980s. I have included some translations from British to American

I would welcome comments. Also If I continue should it be in one thread or in separate parts


A Social Worker’s eyes are opened:

HI! I’m Tabby, otherwise Taylor Abigail Brown. I’ve been a Social Worker for most of my life. I Lived in England and have done so for decades. Still I kept my American accent.

I am the best known proof that good things come in small packages. I am only five foot tall. Despite giving birth to Clemency my boobies are not even that impressive.

I have never approved of hitting children. I still do not. However part of this story relates to how I was forced to somewhat change my view of spanking for certain adults


I first met the Taylors in the late 1970s. I had the problem of finding a home for Lorraine Brown jr. Lorraine’s mother had been an apparently successful property speculator. She had, however, done some rather naughty things. She ended up sentenced to 12 years. The particular judge took an incredibly dim view of white-collar crime, rather unusual. Maybe the coincidence of my name helped me get the assignment.

Now Lorraine’s biological father was Paul Taylor. His was a different family. It looked like a conventional happy blue-collar family in one of England’s less prosperous regions. It was.

Paul and Caroline Taylor worked for the same local employer. Their pay was not generous but it was enough to bring up the children in modest comfort. Neither parent’s job was demanding. Their working lives tended to rather firmly controlled. At that time both mothers, though elderly, visited and their family life was pretty controlled by convention.

Caroline had done one unconventional thing. She had her first baby at 19 and without a husband. Paul had fathered Lorraine with this ‘posh bird’ Lorraine Taylor senior. Paul, however, was willing to marry Caroline even knowing that the household would include another man’s child.


Settling Lorraine into this family required all my skills. There was this huge class issue. Lorraine had been used to having everything. Now she had to share with a much less prosperous family.


By far the most impressive member of the family was Tracy Taylor. Tracy was then not yet 12. I slightly knew her because Clemency, my daughter thought her a heroine. Tracy Taylor was a very athletic young lady. School sports were limited but luckily there was an amazing little women’s sports club called the Oldborough Liberators.


The club had had inherited a farmhouse and a field, which was converted for Athletic purposes. I went there, though not as often as I should have, for use the gym. Tracy and Clemency were very competitive sportswomen, even at 9 and 11. They played tennis but also soccer and cricket.


This was before America had the boom in girls’ soccer. Of course in England ‘Football’, as soccer is called, was a very macho game, and cricket was also seen as something for boys rather than girls.

Tracy Taylor is the most important person in this story. She became one of the more significant people in my whole life


Now Tracy had every imaginable gift. She worked hard and did very well academically. She did help at home. She seemed to get on better than you would expect with her little sister, Sharon, then 6.

She also made this amazing sacrifice. The Taylor home had only 3 bedrooms. Until Lorraine joined them, Tracy and Sharon had their own rooms. Tracy agreed that their 14 year old guest would have her own room and she would share a room with her VERY little sister.

Of course Lorraine was NOT. grateful She just about fitted in. I mean there were no actual crimes and although Lorraine was difficult at school she just about made it.

************

I did play a role in making Tracy so important. I clearly recognized her maturity, intelligence and wisdom.

Now the economy of Oldborough had been heavily hit by the closure of the dominant employer. Both Caroline and Paul Taylor were unemployed, and with little prospect of finding work.

Now in those days, the summer of 1981, Welfare and Unemployment benefits for a couple were normally paid to the husband. Now Paul was not bad man. He never hurt anyone physically. However his habit of buying rounds of drinks meant rent was not paid.


Tracy, then only 15, telephoned me when she realized what was happening. I contacted the family. Things changed. The rent money was paid directly to the City Council which was their landlord. The rest of the benefit was paid to Caroline Taylor.

Unfortunately Caroline dealt with unemployment in an equally unhelpful way. She spent too much money. The family actually had their electricity cut off because bills were not paid.

I had found out about the electricity being cut off because I had been invited to Tracy’s 16th birthday that November. The power went off during the party.

Now the DHSS in those days (Officially Department of Health and Social Security, known to desperate applicants as the Department of Stealth and total Obscurity) could in some cases do different things if it was in the interests of the claimant.

Transferring payments from husband to wife was not that unusual. I was aware of a family where the eldest daughter, 29, had taken charge of benefits for her feckless parents.

I talked about the Taylor’s situation to colleagues. The suggestion of thinking about transferring the money to either Caroline or Paul’s mothers might have been good, except that both had suffered strokes and needed to be in nursing homes. The option of having the money paid to Lorraine came up. I thought about it for about 3 seconds.

I knew that the 18 year old was super immature and not pulling her weight in the house or doing her school work.


Now the local DHSS manager was really helpful. So the arrangements were changed. The checks for the family would be paid to Tracy. The electricity as well as the rent would be taken out of it before it was paid to the family



I have to say that Tracy did an incredible job of managing the money. She also seemed to kind of take over the household.

Paul and Caroline, who were used to being told what to do, took to it pretty well. When in work they were quite closely supervised. (Actually management that discouraged initiative was almost as big a cause of the company going bust as was the Thatcher recession). Until a few months earlier they had often seen their respective mothers who lived in the same street. I found out later that Paul had been spanked by his own mother a few weeks before he married Caroline.

18-year-old Lorraine was a different story.

I knew that the 18 year old was difficult for her father and impossible for her step mother. Tracy had been incredibly kind and considerate for 5 years to her step-sister. I was aware that Tracy had been getting impatient. I did not blame her


I kept tabs on this family. As I expected, Tracy did incredibly well at the Further Education College. By the way for my American friends a Further Education college was sort of a combination of a High School and a Community College I had also discovered, NOT to my surprise that Lorraine’s presence and grades at the college had not been so good.


I noticed things change in February of 1982. Lorraine’s grades improved a little. Her attendance was suddenly pretty well 100 %. I did not find out why this happened until many months later. I guess at the time I disapproved of Tracy’s methods.

Later, I found myself forced to take a different attitude

********

By June of 1982 the Taylors had paid off both their electricity and rent arrears. They seemed to be a wholly functional family. Both Paul and Caroline were studying at the Further Education College and had better chances of getting some kind of job.

There was a little party, arranged by Tracy. The home seemed wonderful, as was the meal. It celebrated becoming friends instead of clients.

In August not only was I invited to a party, but also so was Clemency my partner Jane and her teenage daughter Ruby. I wondered what the secret of this family was. Both Tracy and Lorraine had things to celebrate from their examination results

A couple of days later I visited one of my colleagues, Fred. He and his wife, Julia (a gifted therapist) had let their home become a total tip. The only room that was not embarrassing belonged to 17-year-old Nancy.

Then I found out what went on in the Taylor Household.

Sharon had gone with her big half sister to the Blackborough Liberators. By accident Clemency had got Sharon’s kit. I realized this and went to visit. I knocked on the door. Sharon let me in.

In the big downstairs room I was confronted by a vision that shocked me at the time. I saw a corner. At first I thought it was Sharon, but she had let me in. I saw a figure in pigtails and a childish jumper style dress. She was holding up the skirt of the dress. Her panties were around her ankles. Her bottom was very red.

Tracy was embarrassed:

“I told you that strangers wouldn’t understand.”

Sharon replied

“But Tabby’s not a stranger.”

Tracy, still only 16, later told the story. She had reached the point of spanking Lorraine as an alternative to actually having the 18 year old arrested and prosecuted. This approach seemed to work. Her parents had discovered the secret. They too had been sneaking money.

Tracy had decided that spanking would work as well for her parents as her stepsister. Paul was not put across his stepdaughter’s knee. Instead he had to bend over and accept blows from a bamboo cane. Tracy had noticed how childish her parents’ behavior had been. So their dress code at home had changed.

It turned out that Caroline had started a shouting match with Paul. He had not got off Scott free. He had been given a mouth soaping. I discovered that Caroline’s mouth was kept open with a cake of soap during her corner time.


Tracy remembers part 1:

In the week after my embarrassing 16th birthday , things changed in my family. It was sort of thanks to Tabby. She is indeed the World’s greatest Social Worker. Paul had drunk the rent money. My mother had spent ridiculous amounts on bingo. I was now in charge of our Supplementary Benefit.

I still had to study my ‘O’ Levels at the FE College. I wanted to have some time to play football (soccer for Americans). It was not that hard sorting out the money and making sure that we had food, clothes and so on. I managed to arrange that Sharon, Paul (my stepfather), Mum (Caroline) and Lorraine each got the same one pound fifty pence for whatever we wanted.

I guess it was not surprising that I ended up being in charge. I arranged rotas for chores and so on. Things did get done. However I found that I had to nag and nag to get my parents to do their share. I had then kind of given up on my stepsister. Lorraine was totally lazy. She did nothing at the Further Education College. She did almost nothing at home.

Tabby always thought I was brilliant. It was nice having that kind of affirmation. Still life was very hard.

I had some other problems. In January 1982 money started disappearing from my handbag (which Tabby called a purse), I was upset. I did not know who was taking the money. We ended up having less to eat and I found myself telling Sharon that she would have to wait for new clothes. It was hard. I also felt that it was unfair that I had to do all this.

It all changed on Friday January 29 1982. You need to understand that our door was at the side of our home and that we were at the very end of a terrace. Behind us there was empty waste ground.

This meant that there was nobody who could see the scene. Lorraine rushed in and slammed the door. She ran into me on the stairs. There was a knock. I recognized the voice. It belonged to Roberta Dickson. She was in the same women’s sports club as me. She was also a policewoman; she was in uniform although she had just gone off shift.

Roberta and I had a 10-minute hypothetical conversation through the letterbox. She did not really want to arrest Lorraine for her purchase of ecstasy. Still less would she like the police being involved in thefts within a household. Her uncle George would have given a clip round the ear.

Lorraine certainly needed warning and punishing. It would be unlikely that I would be prosecuted for assault of my 18-year-old (technically an adult, emotionally 10 at most) stepsister signed a consent and confession.

I also remembered that Tabby was due to chat to visit us. Mum and my stepfather, as well as Sharon and little Michael were visiting my grandparents in a nursing home. I had visited my stepfather’s parents the previous week but that evening there was an important soccer match.

Roberta left just as Tabby arrived. I truthfully said that the young policewoman and I had talked about the football match. I did not talk about other aspects. I asked Tabby:

“Do you trust my judgment, Ms Brown?”

Tabby hugged me and said:

“Of course I do Tracy, I trust you more than almost anyone I know.”

So Tabby agreed to help us. She took off her glasses. Being short sighted that meant that she could see that Lorraine and I were reading some papers but could NOT see what was being read. We then covered the substance of the statements. Tabby signed to confirm that she had seen both Lorraine and I signing papers. She agreed that she would keep the top copies in a sealed envelope and would only open them if either Lorraine or I asked her to.

I think that Lorraine probably destroyed her copies of the rather incriminating documents. I planned to take them with me and put them in my locker at the “Blackborough Liberators” lady’s sports club.



Tabby left. Lorraine had gone to her room and returned. She had changed. She now wore much thicker warmer pants.

I closed the curtains. Lorraine said:

“I suppose you should do it now.”

I nodded and then noticed the studs on the pockets of her stepsister’s trousers. I decided that I would do what she was going to do properly. I reached down and unbuckled Lorraine’s belt. I undid the front of her pants and pulled them down:

“Hey, Trace, I didn’t think you’d….”

I replied

“I’m going to spank you properly, unless of course you want me to ask Tabby to take your statements to the cops.”

Lorraine acquiesced. I sat at one end of the sofa and patted her lap. My older stepsister placed herself on over my lap. I gave about half a dozen fairly hard slaps with my left hand on Lorraine’s thin panties.

“Hey that hurts.”

I explained the obvious:

“It’s meant to.”

Slap

“Lorraine…”

SLAP

“Needs…”

SLAP!

“To learn NOT..”

WHAP!

“To steal and..

WHAP!

“Never to buy illegal drugs…”

WHAP!!

I then allowed Lorraine up. Lorraine had not cried or really struggled.

I did feel that she had done the right thing for the family and actually for Lorraine. Still it felt strange. I was embarrassed. I felt that Lorraine would notice some real stinging in her backside. With luck she also felt a bit ashamed and embarrassed. Looking back, my first mild spanking left me more embarrassed than Lorraine - not what was supposed to happen.

I then went to my soccer game. Our side lost two one. I was angry with the referee. I was sure that at least the other side was awarded an unjust penalty and our side was denied one that should have been allowed.

I heard a couple of things. Clemency, Tabby’s daughter, was playing in an under 12s match. She had heard of some rather strong comments by my teammates about the referee. The 11 year old remarked:

“My American Aunt Martha would have washed your mouths out with soap for such language.”

Tabby drove me home. Tabby was not pleased. She had heard that a mother who had left bruises after spanking her 8 year old with a hairbrush had been acquitted because it was seen as ‘reasonable chastisement’.

I did not sleep well. Everything seemed strange. I decided to make a really big effort to get on better with Lorraine.

As usual Lorraine slept late. I got the bus and did some shopping. I then prepared all Lorraine’s favorite things for breakfast. Lorraine joined me for the meal. Lorraine said very little and just seemed resentful.


Tracy remembers giving her second spanking:

For 4 years I had tried to be nice to my stepsister. I thought that it had reached a head that Friday evening. Lorraine was very nearly arrested. I discovered what had been happening to the housekeeping money.

I knew that Lorraine’s father would have gone crazy about the tablets. Actually I was angrier about the money. I mean we had very little. I was trying to manage for a family of two parents and 4 kids and this little brat was stealing from everyone.

Although I was feeling a bit tired and stressed that Saturday morning I really wanted to see if we could change things. I explained really carefully how, provided Lorraine behaved herself, did her studies and shared with the housework - our slightly embarrassing experience of the previous night could mark a change.

I thought that Lorraine would want to be properly a part of the family and would put something in. She failed at the very first test.

“Lori, I did the breakfast could you wash the dishes.”

“Just because I had the odd ‘e’ you think I’m your slave. Well I’m not you f*******, sadistic b****.”

I knew it would be uncomfortable for everyone having me in charge of the money. I managed to allow a certain amount of ‘pocket money’. I kept that separate from everything else. I gave the same pocket money to my mother, to Paul, my stepfather to myself, my half sister Sharon and my stepsister Lorraine.

Each Monday, after I got our benefit money, I normally gave everyone their ‘pocket money’. I was astonished at Lorraine’s request

“And can I have my pocket money now?”

The 18 year old had been caught stealing. She now asked for money in advance. Then Lorraine saw the money ready for the milkman.

“I’ll take it out of this.”

She reached for money on the table. That was it

I both have better reflexes and had better training..Also even despite the age difference I was taller, bigger and stronger than she was. I got there faster and I grabbed Lorraine’s hand. Lorraine actually tried to hit me.

In seconds I had Lorraine over my knees with her jeans and panties around her knees. I had firm control of her wrists and started landing the hairbrush on her bottom. For about a minute there was swearing from the 18 year old. Then there was just infantile crying and ineffective struggle and kicking.

I do not know how long the spanking lasted. I know she was feeling real pain and shame and that her bottom was now very red and hot.

Interestingly for this spanking I did not use the threat of the police or telling Lorraine’s father. I simply used the fact that I could overpower the 18-year-old brat. I think I actually liked that she resisted. I was 100% certain that Lori REALLY hated this punishment

I knew the spanking could not go on forever. I remembered Clemency’s Aunt Martha. I got up and dragged Lorraine to the kitchen. I do not think that she knew what I was doing when I covered a washcloth with soap.

“Open your mouth…”

Lorraine did not obey. I do not think she knew what I planned.

“Unless you feel you need more spanking I advise you to open your mouth.”

I stuffed the VERY soapy cloth in the brat’s mouth and kept it there.

Then I said:

“Now you can write neatly 50 times:”

‘Lorraine Artemis Brown needs to learn to be polite and that she must never ever swear or use bad language.’

I composed this line knowing it was too long to be on one line of paper. It meant that she would have to literally write the whole sentence rather than just wire ‘I’ fifty times, ‘must’ fifty times and so on. Then I continued

“Then you can rinse your mouth.”

I let my stepsister pull up her underwear but I took her jeans off. I sat her on my chair. Because I was so tall I had not been so comfortable in the chairs the rest of my family used.

The great thing about putting her on my chair was that I knew that Lorraine’s feet would not reach the floor. Her whole body weight would be on her very sore rear.

I needed a rest. I thought about giving Lori more punishment lines but then I had a better Idea. I ordered her to write a two thousand word essay on what she had done wrong and why she deserved all her punishments.