The New Kids Learn About Spanking

My house is never quiet. Even when I’m the only one there, and even if I don’t have the stereo playing, there are dogs, cats, and ferrets moving around, or even just the sound of Van’s hamsters using their exercise wheel. There’s the sound of the refrigerator motor or the sound of the fish tank re-oxygenizing the water. However, there’s quiet, and then there’s quiet.

For a Sunday afternoon, the house was quiet. That meant I could hear several different types of music playing, but not too loudly. I could hear voices and people moving around, dogs yapping, and the scurry of ferret claws on tiles, as Riki and Tavi (my ferrets) realized I was home and rushed up to me for some attention.

After playing climbing posts for a pair of weasels, I gave a quick walk around the house to make sure no disasters had occurred while I was gone, checked the house voice mail, then decided to see how the kids were doing.

I started downstairs.

It had been a busy day – heck, a busy weekend – and part of the quiet was from that. We’d just taken in the new kids on Friday, all that went with that, then ended the day with a family movie. Saturday, with the first BYA games of the season only a week away, had been practice for everyone involved in the youth association. On top of that, I’d had to meet the coaches for all the new kids, show them the paperwork, and explain the situation so there would be no problems. Then I’d taken the new kids shopping. I’d intended to take my high school kids shopping as well, but that was delayed by an impromptu pool party and dawg cookout that gave the new kids a chance to meet the neighborhood kids and make a few friends. That ended a bit later than I’d expected, and we’d delayed the older boys’ shopping trip so we could have a quiet dinner and a family game night. The new kids had been a bit uncomfortable at first, but had quickly settled down and enjoyed themselves.

Between all those things, I was dealing with the medical needs of the new kids, the logistical needs of moving them in for a while, and the emotional needs of new and old kids (and while adopted foster kids can become amazingly stable, they still need a lot of reassurance at times).

Sunday had been a bit quieter. Wanting the new kids to have a balanced view of life around our home, we’d had a nice Sunday dinner, eaten at the table, using good manners. It was nice, but a real change from what they’d seen before. After that, we’d broken up to do chores or go play, and/or visit friends. That’s when I’d taken the high school kids shopping for new dress clothes for their debate tournament next week.

I started in Noah and Barry’s room. They were wrestling around on the floor when I walked in. Noah had his younger brother pretty well pinned but seemed to be fighting to keep Barry’s hands down. For his part, Barry was struggling to take advantage of his big brother’s ticklishness.

When I walked in, both of them looked up at me.

"Hey, Dad," Noah said nonchalantly, as though he weren’t sitting straddled across his brother.

Barry took advantage of Noah’s inattention and shot a hand to his ribs. A surprised guffaw escaped Noah, and he threw himself onto the floor, away from the smaller boy. With his brother off him, Barry sat up and waved at me.

"Did you two get all the tags off everything?" I asked.

"Yep," Noah answered from the floor, and Barry echoed him.

I took a minute to show them how to use the ‘fancy, wooden hangers’ I’d bought for each blazer. Since neither of them chose a suit, they wouldn’t use the swing out rod for pants often, but it would probably make it easier to take an outfit to school for changing. I also took a quick look to see how they’d put their other stuff away and decided I needed to make a point of getting another tie rack so they could each have their own, and to find some kind of box where they could keep tiepins and stuff.

Barry left for the laundry room with their new shirts in his arms, and Noah started to put on some pants, explaining to me that Barry had actually attacked him while he’d been changing clothes. I waved, as I cut through their bathroom to check on Bryce, Jeremy, and Ethan.

We have four bedrooms for the boys downstairs. Each pair of them is connected by a Hollywood bath. Hollywood baths are divided into two parts - a vanity, with doors at either end, which open into the different bedrooms, and a separate room off the vanity area for the tub and stool. I used to have them grouped by age, but since Noah, Barry, and the twins all shower in the mornings now, it made more since to match each pair with the younger boys, who still normally clean up at night.

Some people might say I have corrupted Bryce. Personally, I think he was that way from the beginning. Whichever way it worked, while his room could be cleaner, his Legos are normally very well organized. He keeps his favorite kits separated into their original boxes (and actually checks against the list to make sure he has them all right), and everything else is in a series of drawers and boxes, so it is easy to find exactly what he wants. I say normally, because when I walked into his room, a lot of them were out on the floor.

All three boys were over by Bryce’s bed. Ethan was atop the bed, with a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards spread out around him, but was over by the edge, looking over the shoulders of Bryce and Jeremy.

It’s interesting to me that Ethan and Jeremy aren’t biologically related, because they resemble each other. I don’t know if that’s because I was just looking for similarities between them or because Jeremy’s father had a certain look he preferred in his women.

Whatever the case, the two boys aren’t built similarly. While both of them are about average height for a boy their age (4’8" for Ethan, and 4’10" for Jeremy, who is about six months older), Jeremy has a stocky build. He’s very lean but just built wider, and weighs 87 pounds to Ethan’s 79.

I think it’s the shape of their face that made me decide they look alike. That and their coloring. Both of them have a sharp, jutting – almost chisel-like – chins, and a somewhat high forehead. Jeremy has rounder eyes and more arched eyebrows, with a broad nose and slightly pouty lips, while Ethan’s nose is a bit longer but leaner, and his mouth is wider, which makes his lips seem thinner, though they’re not actually thin.

Despite the difference in build and features, both of them do have very similar coloring. Their skin is fair, though neither of them have a lot of freckles (Jeremy does have a few distinct ones scattered across his nose and cheeks, while Ethan’s are faint enough you don’t notice them unless you’re looking). Both of them have brown eyes that are closer to honey-colored than chocolate. I actually had to look a few times to decide they were brown instead of a dark hazel. Both boys also have pretty short dark brown hair that they wear in a basic bowl cut, though I get the idea Ethan would like to grow his out some. At this point, their hair is so short that it tends to bristle a bit, rather than laying down.

Jeremy and Bryce were sitting on the floor with their backs against the bed, and all three of them were looking at something. I couldn’t tell what when I walked in the door, but then the boys saw me, and Bryce waved one hand to wave, letting me see he had his digital frame in it.

"Hi, Dad," he greeted me cheerfully.

Ethan and Jeremy seemed a bit uncomfortable when I came in, but they both greeted me politely.

"What are you guys looking at?" I asked, after returning their greetings.

Bryce turned the frame so I could see it. He has two in his room. One of them is basically random pictures of his friends and sports team pictures. I should have guessed the one he would have though. The second frame was dedicated to Legos. For the most part, there would be a picture of Bryce getting a Lego set, probably on Christmas morning or at a birthday party, then a picture of the completed kit. Often there were also pictures of him working on it in between. Some of the kits had been passed on to Van or given to charity, but a lot of them were still in his closet. I was willing to bet that they had started off talking about what to build, then got mildly distracted, and Bryce was always happy to show off his Lego skill.

I excused myself and left them to it.

Josh wasn’t in their room when I went to see the twins. Johnny was stretched out on his bed, reading, which was a bit unusual for him. I was going to leave him to it, but he laid the book across his chest before I could leave.

"What’s up?" he asked.

Since he seemed to want to talk, I crossed over and sat on the side of his bed.

"Just seeing what everyone’s up to."

"You mean checking up on us?" he asked with mild mockery.

"Same difference," I replied, winking at him.

I sat there for a few minutes, and we just talked.

While I try to let my kids do what they want to do, it’s impossible not to influence them in some ways. One of the ways I’ve influenced my kids was by telling them how much fun I had when I did speech and debate in middle and high school. Almost all my kids have done the competitive side of that, at least a bit (and now that it’s a requirement for college prep, there’s even more reason to).

My shopping trip with the older boys had started Johnny thinking, wondering if he’d made a mistake with the electives he’d chosen. Josh had already mentioned thinking about dropping jazz band for speech/drama, which had started Johnny thinking about what he could do.

I talked with Johnny about it, and also told him to talk to Bobby. I admitted I’d enjoyed it a lot, but also pointed out that I didn’t play any instruments, so that wasn’t a choice I had to make. I also pointed out that I’d gotten into speech almost by accident, because I had some friends who were into it who had invited me to participate. Which brought up my final point – that he didn’t have to take the class to go to the tournaments if he was willing to put in the extra practice time.

When I left, Johnny was resolved to visit the speech/drama coach after school the next day to find out about their tournaments and see if he could still participate.

Once again, I cut through the bathroom to see what the youngest boys were doing. While there are no windows in the bathroom, the doors to both sides were slightly open, and there was a night light on the vanity, so there was plenty of light for me to navigate. The door to Van’s room was open a bit, so I reached for the edge of the door to pull it the rest of the way. As I reached, my gaze fell upon the mirror and I stopped.

It took me a second to realize what was going on, then I leaned forward, pulling the door open only slightly, peeking around the corner and listening.

Except that it was Van sitting in his art chair, the tableau was very familiar. Leif and Kenny were standing in front of Van. Both of the younger boys were barefoot, wearing t-shirts, which they were holding up. Leif was wearing black nylon basketball shorts. The blue cotton shorts that Kenny had been wearing earlier in the day were on the floor, not far from the three boys, and he was standing there in just his briefs.

As I watched, Van reached up and pulled Leif’s shorts off as well.

"How come you do it?" Leif inquired.

"I dunno. Dad always does it, though."

Kenny just stood there watching the two boys talk as his big brother’s pants came off. Leif gave kind of a shrug, like he didn’t understand it but did accept it.

Van tossed Leif’s shorts over to land atop his little brother’s, then turned back towards the younger boy.

Kenny didn’t protest as Van slipped his fingers into the waistband of the Jockey briefs he was wearing. He watched, seeming a bit curious, as his briefs slid down his legs. Without Van saying anything, Kenny stepped out of them, though he did have a bit of trouble balancing from one foot to the other as they came off.

Van turned and repeated the same process for Leif, leaving both boys naked from mid-chest to their toes.

It was very cute.

It was also pretty funny. While I found a lot of similarities in the two older boys, who aren’t actually related, the two younger boys, who are full brothers, and related to both of the older boys, didn’t really resemble their older brothers or each other.

Leif and Kenny both share the same chin their older brothers have, though it’s less distinct in Leif, and Kenny’s jaw is rounder, so his chin isn’t quite as sharp as the older boys’. They also have the same basic shape to their face.

With Leif, the biggest difference is that he’s blond. It’s not that fair, almost white blond that turns to brown with many boys – just a normal, mid-range blond. He also has very light blue eyes that I’m tempted to call gray, except they seem to have a hint of green to them, like the older boys’ brown eyes almost seem hazel at times. He still has the same fair complexion the other boys share, but he has no freckles. If you look closely at just his mouth, you can see that his looks a lot like Ethan’s, except that Leif’s lips are thinner.

Kenny isn’t blond, but his hair is a much lighter shade than the older boys’. Also, his hair is a bit longer than theirs. While the older boys’ hair is straight, Kenny’s light brown hair has a tousled look, like it would be curly if it got much longer. Like all these boys, he has a fair complexion, but he has the most freckles of any of them, though his aren’t quite as dark and distinct as Jeremy’s. While his hair is lighter, his eyes are actually darker, and there’s not a hint of green to their golden-brown depths. He also has the finest features of the four boys – not feminine, but a nose that’s a bit shorter and almost narrow, and thinner lips.

Leif seems a bit stockier than Kenny, but at their age, it’s hard to tell if he actually is, or if it is just normal growth. Both of them seem about average size. From what the doctor said, Leif is 4’3" and weighs 57 pounds. If I remember correctly, that puts him right about the same size Van had been at a similar age. Kenny, on the other hand, is just a hint less than average at 3’9" and 42 pounds.

I’d already seen them and their older brothers naked numerous times – at the doctor’s office, bathing them, and doctoring the older boys’ bruised bottoms – so I wasn’t surprised that they were circumcised. I also wasn’t surprised that they didn’t seem embarrassed. It was the fact that they also didn’t seem worried or nervous that hadn’t made me interrupt them yet. I still wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but they were obviously going along with it voluntarily, so I was content to watch.

"Now," Van said, after pausing a second to look at the two almost naked boys, "you go get Spanky Bear."

Van was looking at Kenny when he said it, and he waited until the little boy turned and started towards the dresser. Then he turned to Leif.

"You go get the Tail Blazer," Van instructed, pointing towards the door.

"How come I gotta get that one?"

"I don’t know if you will or not. Dad started using it on me last year, but I don’t remember when. He might decide to use the Little Deer on you instead, ‘specially since you’re not used to getting paddled. It doesn’t really matter right now, though."

"Okay," Leif replied, shrugging, then turned and started towards the door.

All four of the new kids were obviously active. Jeremy was the only one with any real tone, but all of them were lean and healthy. And while lean, they all had nice, round, firm little bottoms. Walking away from Van, both of the younger boys were showing theirs off to good advantage. I turned away from them for a second, but Van was facing away from me, so I couldn’t tell if he was really enjoying the show or not.

When Kenny reached the dresser, he stretched his arms to where Spanky rested and pulled the bear towards him. When it reached the side, Kenny went down from his tiptoes, picked the paddle up in one hand, then looked a question back towards Van.

"Yeah, bring that, too."

Kenny didn’t look very happy to be lifting the little wooden paddle, but he did it. I glanced over to find Leif at the door, staring at the paddle, but not having touched it yet. Van’s voice called my attention back to him.

"No, you gotta keep your shirt up. Here," he added, standing and walking towards the dresser.

Kenny stepped back, looking a bit confused at what was expected of him.

"Let me see Spanky a minute," Van told the younger boy.

Kenny held the bear towards him. There was a second’s pause while Van lifted his shirt and tucked it under his arms. Then he took the teddy.

"See," Van explained, "if you hold Spanky like this," he said, tucking the bear firmly into the crook of his left arm and holding the arm tight to his side, "and keep this arm like this when you pick up the paddle," he added, keeping his right arm to his side and moving it only below the elbow, "your shirt stays up like it should."

Van put the bear on the dresser, then took the paddle and set it down as well. Then he lifted the boy’s shirt for him. Kenny carefully picked up the bear with his left hand, keeping his shirt up with his right, tucked the bear in like Van had showed him, then picked up the paddle.

"That’s it," Van praised the younger boy.

Kenny beamed proudly.

Van turned and walked back to the chair, Kenny following behind him. While walking, he turned to address Leif.

"Don’t take too long. Dad doesn’t like it when you go too slow."

Kenny reached out slowly and lifted the Texas Tailblazer from its hook by the door. Then he turned and walked back to join the other two boys.

When Leif got back to the chair, he tried to hand Van the paddle.

"You hold it," Van instructed him.

"How come?"

"’Cause you gotta wait while Kenny gets spanked."

"Why do I get spanked first?" Kenny complained, not quite whining.

"Because you’re the youngest. Dad always spanks the youngest first… Unless you got company. Sometimes when me and Donny get spanked, Dad spanks me first ‘cause Donny’s older, but he’s over here a lot."

"He’s your cousin, though, right?"

"Donny? No."

"But him and Scooter call your dad Uncle Jack."

"Yeah, but that’s like… Well, I call their mom and dad Aunt Kim and Uncle Curtis, but we’re not really related."

The younger two boys looked a little confused but accepted it.

"Okay, Kenny, c’mere."

Kenny didn’t look like he wanted to ‘c’mere’. After a second, Van reached out and took his wrist, guiding him around to Van’s side. Then he moved his hands to the younger boy’s hips, mimicking the way I’d put him over my lap so many times before. Of course, Van was nowhere near strong enough to lift Kenny like that, but he was also sitting in his drawing chair, not in the desk chair where I typically sit for spankings, so Kenny was able to get over Van’s lap without a lift.

Van stopped partway through, while Kenny was squirming around.

"I almost forget. Give me the paddle."

Kenny stood up and handed the paddle to Van, who tucked it behind him on the chair. It fell. Van looked behind him, giving the paddle an irritated glance, but Leif moved to pick it up before Van could say anything.

It took a bit of work, but they finally got Kenny into position over Van’s lap, and Kenny still had a firm grip on Spanky Bear. Leif handed the paddle to Van. Nothing bad seemed to be happening, but I prepared to stop whatever was going on, but didn’t enter the room quite yet.

"Dad doesn’t always use a paddle, but when he does, he always spanks the same way. He starts like this…" Van explained.

If Van was facing noon, I was watching from about 4:30. I wasn’t able to see his front, but I could see his right arm and had a pretty good view of Kenny’s bottom. Matching actions to words, Van lifted the paddle, but it only came up a few inches, then went back down again, but not quickly at all. While I was too far away to judge for sure, I don’t think you could have called the contact between paddle and bottom anything more than a pat.

"… And he goes all the way down your crack. Then he does your cheeks. Sometimes he goes up and down…"

Van paused again, and I could tell he was tracking the paddle down one cheek.

"… And sometimes he goes back and forth. He smacks your crack a lot, but he also gets the sides, like this."

Another pause as he demonstrated.

"Dad don’t… doesn’t hit real hard, but he does it pretty quick, and he spanks a really long time. It just stings a little at first, but it keeps getting hotter and hotter until it’s really burning bad. Then he spanks your legs."

"You mean here?" Leif inquired, turning so Van (and I) could see his bottom, and brushing his fingers across his upper legs, just below his bottom.

"Yeah."

"Ohhhww," Leif moaned. "Those really hurt bad."

"Yeah, that’s when I start really crying, mostly."

Leif nodded in understanding.

"Anyway, he doesn’t spank your legs too bad, but when he’s through, he does it all again."

"Again?" Kenny squeaked.

"On the same spots?" Leif protested.

"Yep."

With that, he helped Kenny back to his feet.

"When he spanks somebody, they’re always crying hard before he finishes."

"Do you see him spank a lot of guys?"

"Yeah. Sometimes when we’re in trouble in our bedroom, he’ll spank us in front of each other, but mostly, if I’m the only one in trouble, it’s just me and him. But if we get in trouble together, Dad spanks us together. I seen… Chase, and Dex, and Scooter and Donny, and... Kirby. Bryce. Ummm… Me and Del got it last summer… That was really hard, too."

"Wow," both of the younger two boys replied in echo.

"Yeah," Van responded, laying the Bare Cub on the floor behind him. "Anyway, your turn now, Leif."

"I don’t need to, Van. I saw it."

"Yeah, but you got to see Kenny, so Kenny needs to see you."

Leif sighed and started to step around to Van’s side, but then stopped.

"How come I don’t get to use the Spanky Bear?"

Van shrugged.

"You can if you want."

Leif turned to his little brother and held out his hands. Kenny seemed reluctant to release the bear and looked at Van, but Van nodded, so Kenny passed Spanky. After a second, Kenny turned and grabbed another bear from Van’s bed to cuddle against him.

With bear in place, Leif stepped to Van’s side, handed over the paddle, and laid himself across the slightly older, slightly bigger, boy’s lap.

Van gave the same explanation again, his arm seeming to repeat the same motions. Kenny was watching wide-eyed through the entire thing. When Leif stood, his bottom looked the same to me, but he reached behind him for a quick rub and shot an accusing glance at Van, like the swats had been firmer than he’d expected. I was a bit far away to notice pink, but I hadn’t even heard a vague splat, so I wasn’t sure if Leif was being theatrical or if Van had snuck a smack or two in.

Either way, he stood up, picked up both paddles and handed them back to the boys they’d been demonstrated on.

"Sometimes Dad makes you stand in the corner after a spanking. A lot of times, he just holds you ‘til you settle down, then you talk some. He always gives you a lot of hugs, though, so it’s okay. When your spanking’s really over, you put those up, then you can get cleaned up and dressed."

"What’s cleaned up?" one of the other two boys – Kenny, I think – asked.

"You know. Washing your face. Blowing your nose."

"Oh."

Leif gave Spanky back to Kenny, who returned the other bear to Van’s bed. Then the two boys put their paddles up before returning to Van. Van had put his chair back at his easel, and the three of them stood there a second, seeming unsure what to do now. Kenny and Leif didn’t seem to notice their nudity, but Leif disabused me of that notion a second later.

"Van?" Kenny asked.

"Yeah?"

"Can we see your wiener?"

I couldn’t see Van’s face, but his head tilted to the side for a second, then he shrugged. Instead of saying anything, he reached down to the fly of the denim shorts he was wearing. A second later, his shorts and briefs slid down his legs.

Kenny and Leif knelt down in front of him.

"What’s that?" Kenny asked.

I knew he must be talking about Van’s foreskin. Before I could hear Van start to explain circumcision, I heard the door behind me move. The light came on, just as I eased the door to Van’s room shut.

"What…?"

I held a finger over my lips in a gesture for quiet.

"What are you doing?" Josh asked quietly.

I shrugged.

"Just watching the little guys play. What are you doing?"

"Nothing this second, but I’m about to pee, if you really need to know."

I smiled and shook my head.

"Don’t let me stop you."

He gave me one of those looks, like he was thinking of accusing me of spying, or maybe of asking me if I ever watched him like that. Instead, he went on into the bathroom.

I thought about looking again, but was afraid of attracting their attention. I certainly didn’t want them to become self-conscious of how they’d been playing, and it had been a reasonable demonstration, though I’m sure Van could have explained it without the role-playing aspects if he’d really wanted.

Besides, playful demonstration or not, I found myself pretty worked up over watching. I turned and left.

Josh had left the door to his room open, and Johnny didn’t even notice as I came back in. He’d flipped onto his stomach and was very intent on his novel.



Because we eat a late and usually big lunch on Sunday, supper is usually fairly casual. It’s often a good time to clear leftovers. I was warming a few things and laying stuff out so the boys could fix their plates when Van walked in.

"Hey, Dad."

I returned his greeting, and we chatted for a while. He informed me that he was getting along just fine with Kenny and Leif, they were respecting his stuff, and he still didn’t mind sharing his room with them.

"That’s good."

"Dad?"

"Yeah, champ?"

"You know what I think we need to do for them?"

"What’s that?"

"I think they need to go to Build-a-Bear."

"You do, huh?"

"Yeah. If you want, I’ll go with you when you take them. You know, so I can show them around and stuff."

"Well, that’s a generous offer, Van."

I paused, pretending to think for a minute.

"That’s probably a very good idea. I’ll have to look at everyone’s schedule, but maybe we can do that next weekend."

"Great," he said, then looked sheepish, as he realized he might have responded too enthusiastically.

"Don’t tell them about it, though. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to do it, and don’t forget we’re going to see THE LION KING next weekend, so it might have to wait a while."

"Okay. Dad?"

"Yeah, Van?"

"I was thinking that if we went to that great big store, maybe we could…"

I knew that ‘that great big store’ was Grapevine Mills Mall. We’d been to their Build-a-Bear before, but there was something else they had.

"You thought maybe they’d like to go to the Rain Forest Café?"

His eyes lit up at just the mention of the place.

"I bet they would."

"I bet they would, too. We’ll see what we can do. Now, you’d better go get washed up and tell everyone it’s almost supper time."

"Okay, Dad."

He turned to go, humming Supper Time half under his breath. I let him get almost to the dining room door before I stopped him.

"Van?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"I told you I don’t know how long these boys will be staying with us, right?"

"I know."

"But I wanted you to know, while they’re here, I think you’re making a great big brother?"

"You do?!"

I nodded.

He looked at me for a moment, unsure what to say, then he turned and left on his errand.

I’m not going to swear to it, but I’m pretty sure his feet weren’t touching the ground as he left.





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