When I was a kid, I got 'spanked' if I did anything wrong. My dad always told me before the punishment, 'I hate doing this, but it's the only discipline that works with you.'
He was absolutely right of course. I was a rebel child. I hated spankings, but they did work.. somewhat.
I was in a wal-mart when I was like 9. (yay) I wanted a tech-deck dude. Like, hella bad fellas. If I didn't get me a tech-deck dude, I was gonna flip out. And apparently, I did. (I was a brat of a child, bless my parents).
My dad whispered very calmly to me, that if I didn't be quiet, that he would announce what I had done, and then spank me 'in front of all these people'.
Now this was back in the day, where if a parent spanked their kids, the parents silently applauded one another for teaching their kids lessons.. contrasting vividly to the present day, where you'd be tackled by the swat team if you were seen giving your kid's hand a quick pat in public.
Anyway, I thought he was bluffing, as I always did.. but he wasn't. He stood me up, announced to the world my brattiness and spanked me in front of all of these people. Before thinking it could get any worse, I saw my best friend standing dierectly in front of me, jaw-gaping.. He never spoke to me again.
I've had some pretty extensive groundings in my time, but nothing was worse than that day.