Euphemism's for corporal punishment

In the UK, they used to say "he/she/it needs a short, sharp, shock"!

Oooh, I like that one. May I use it in a story sometime? I don't have a specific story in mind right now, I just like how it sounds.

Burgundy, by all means use it, I heard that one a lot back in the day, once in a smart alecky mood I asked him what list I was on. Instead of telling me, he demonstrated, never made that mistake again. today we'll say someone is on our "shit list". He wouldn't say that to a 10-12 year old boy.

Thanks! But it's probably going to be a woman saying it to a boy (18+), not a parent. Sorry that happened to you, by the way (shouda said that the first time, but I forgot). I don't like the thought of real children getting hurt...

It's ok, Burgundy, it's the way it was done then. I went to grade school in the 60's in Texas where corporal punishment was alive and well. I have to say I did have a couple of bad teachers, but the majority were fair, if on the strict side. You knew what would merit a trip to the hall with a paddle. Same with dad, what may be thought of as abusive now, was simply strict discipline then.

I am reading a piece of historical fiction right now and there was a line in there where a character said about his wife, "I ought to take her behind the woodshed and give her a proper shingle-ing".
It did not take me long to figure out what that referred to (even though I'm not one you will find standing on the medal podium at the "uptake" event!)

This reminds me of an old poem, 'The Patter of the Shingle' which opens with the verse:

When the angry passion gathering in my mother's face I see,
And she leads me to the bedroom, gently lays me on her knee,
Then I know that I will catch it, and my flesh in fancy itches
As I listen for the patter of the shingle on my breeches.

Neither am I - that's because we're always thinking about spanking

A phrase my French gf tells me she used to hear her parents use, if they saw a child or teenager acting up in public without anyone doing anything about it, was "Il y a des fessées qui se perdent," meaning roughly "There's some spanks going to waste."

My fifth grade teacher would say, that's worth five licks, or that'll cost you a trip to the hall, which was just another way of saying she'd give you five licks.