Background: I thought I had shared getting in trouble at church, but like the 116 lost manuscript: Poof it disappeared. So some of the details may be a little askew should the original story resurface.

I used to get into trouble when my mom attended a monthly RS meeting at the church. I could be a whiny pain in the butt, snot-nosed brat. I don't think my mom ever found a babysitter and the young women were NOT voluntold to take care of children.

So me and another boy were left unsupervised in the cultural hall. What could possibly go wrong?

We would pull out the carts holding tables and chairs. At the very end of the stage "tunnels" were empty carts. We would race them around the cultural hall (sometimes on Sundays too).

On this occasion, we climbed the curtains on the stage to reach a lighting array. We were way up and the sisters finally found us. A bunch of women were laughing at us- Look at them! They look like two little monkeys. My mom was laughing, but my friend's mom was not.

Her words- Jack you get down right now. And you better not fall because I will not take you to the hospital if you break your arm.

Then it was my mom's turn- Messy get down before you hurt yourself. (And my mom would not take me to the ER as I would later realize:( She truly meant those words.

Somehow we climbed down and then the grand murmuring from the old biddies began. -Such poorly behaved children, and this is the Lord's house. -Poor parenting, no discipline.

My friend Jack was dragged into the women's bathroom and my mom had me dragged in right behind them.

We both got spanked in adjacent stalls. In between being upside he would imitate a banana with his thumb and make monkey noises. I would giggle despite getting whipped by a leather belt- it came off her purse!

The spankings continued until I started to cry. My mom hated hearing me cry so she spanked me even harder until I stopped crying.

but I am. Was their response any better than you guys climbing curtains? Spanking you in the church building? Or whatever. I think that is a problem with them personally.

I have said that I got in trouble a few times, but I wasn't much of a problem usually. I got sent to the nursery with two other girls because our ring leader in all such antics put her scripture bag on her head (we used to have fabric ones that were sewn with a cord in them to pull them closed). So there we were in the nursery and my mom came and got me and she couldn't stop laughing.

Most of the time my parents laughed and my dad was a real authoritarian, but he wasn't real TBM and he thought most of the church members were fake and obnoxious.

I think if you are going to discipline a child, take them home, have a talk, and then decide what you are going to do.

Our ward talked about all of our family, so it wasn't anything for all the gossips to spread stories. We weren't TBM royalty (although my maiden name is Christensen and that was one of the first names that came up on a mormon royalty thread--you could have fooled me) as my dad wasn't that active and my mom wasn't really social as she was raised by deaf parents, but it was amazing how many women really liked her. She just didn't try to be in the clique, etc. She had her friends and she stuck with them. We were the outcasts.

Being a mormon child was so much fun. I couldn't be happier that I found out it is not true and I don't have to be one of them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2023 05:29PM by cl2.

Messy, I remember that story, and I think you retold it really well. :)

Spanking seemed to be the solution to a lot of parenting problems back in those days. One thing for which I was grateful is that my own parents came to an agreement that they didn't want to raise us in that particular manner.