Pickles by Brian Crane for November 28, 2020

So Earl your mothers wooden spoon was her way of walk softly and carry a big stick to keep you in line.

You also obey her because you need food and shelter.

scary great-grandmother you have, eh, Nelson? a wooden spoon slapped on your hands or backside is no fun

Proper motivation.

I’m 6 foot 2 inches tall and still not bigger or stronger than my mother. I grew up telling people my mom was a really big guy.

look out for the rolling pin Earl!

Respect is much better than fear, Earl!

Big Scary Wooden Spoon….otherwise known as “The Equalizer”!

I was only four years old when mother caught me out front putting all of the wooden spoons down the sewer grate.

True story.

It fell short again today . Shame on you , No reason not to have the precious Roscoe on the floor next to the chair . And maybe the lovely Muffin too .

Damn right – my Mom had a big wooden spoon and she knew how to use it!

“Naughty spoon” is a great deterrent. They only need to see it. There is difference between abuse and correction. I’ve seen both but thankfully only experienced correction.

OW! Those hurt like a mother.

I’m familiar with those big scary wooden spoons….they’re just intimidating….I never used them my self…..

Never had kids …just nieces & nephews never hit them, but they definitely got a Long lecture about their misbehaving. At one point one said just hit me and stop talking aka Verbal Torture…Lol :^))

I can imagine Earl in his college days getting smacked by a spoon.

r.e.s.p.e.c.t :)

Grandma had a big, heavy-duty wooden spoon she used for mixing up cookie dough. But if it was sitting on the kitchen counter by itself, we grandkids knew we had better settle down and behave ourselves. That warning was enough. Nobody ever tested the strength of that spoon, or grandma.

Todays kids won’t be able to tell the wooden spoon story.. another victim of progress. Smacked with an electric mixer just doesn’t ring possible.

Tell Nelson that’s how you lost you hair, Earl! Getting hit on the head with that spoon! Why, you were the only bald 4th grader in the entire school!

Is the wooden spoon an American thing? If it’s British, too, why wasn’t Winston Smith terrified into betraying Julia and loving Big Brother by being threatened with an army of mothers wielding wooden spoons?

Even before the kids get bigger than the parents, the threat of closing the purse strings and cutting off the money (no phones, no streaming service, no cable, no expensive sneakers, no designer clothes, no going out money) becomes a far more effective deterrent to bad behavior than the threat of physical force, as soon as the kids are old enough to understand money. I’d guess for most kids, that’s around 6 or 7 years old, so pretty early.

The spatula works better; actually just the threat of it, and only for extreme violations.

We had a young man from Louisiana move in with us when I was a kid. He loved to cook and bake. His fresh out of the oven rolls were to die for. Home from school and a fresh pan would be sitting on the kitchen table cooling. We would snag several when his back was turned. He would come at us with the wooden spoon and say, “Now boys, I told ya”ll t’ stay the h*ll outa my kitchen!” Of course we knew he would be hurt is we DIDN’T!

Mom had a belt hanging in the pantry. We were TERRIFIED of that belt! I did not even like going into the pantry with it hanging there. Mom would say, “Do I have to get my belt?” and whatever we were doing we STOPPED! “Let’s go sit quietly in the living room.” It might not have been so effective had she actually hit us with it. The fear of the unknown was plenty for us.

My equivalent was pop’s clothes brush, so heavy, combined with “Tom, go get my clothes brush.” Twas similar to dead boy walking.

My dad kept a stick on top of the refrigerator.

My mom rarely resorted to violence, …she just threatened to take the Encyclopædia Brittanica away from me

While staying with our Granny Martha on the farm in Everson, WA in the late ’40’s early ’50’s, whenever we did something bad, or not to her liking, we were told to go out to the Weeping Willow tree and pick out our own “switch” to which she would then slap our backsides with it !

Lucky. Mine carried a knife, pruning shears and a red hot poker.

When I got out of the military, I said something bad about it that my mother didn’t like. She swung to slap me and I stopped her with just two fingers. I could see reality crystallizing around her. It wasn’t going to be like that, anymore.

For us that checkered apron she threaten to use.

I grew up in a Hungarian household. When we were little at family gatherings I would ask my aunt to say wooden spoon in Hungarian. All us kids laughed and laughed. Look it up.

After enduring so-called “Greatest Generation” parents’ and teachers’ use of corporal punishment in the 50’s/60’s, I resolved to never hit my kids. Timeouts worked just fine. Now I have two very successful sons in the medical field.

this is a rerun

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.” That’s what my mother always said. :)

Our Vice Principal, Mr Palmer, carried a big paddle. And he did use it.

we need more of that these days

My mom used a “switch” on us when we were kids. Back in the 50s, it was okay to use them.

My wife used to carry an extra wooden spoon in here purse. One Sunday when the kids were acting up a bit in church, she opened her purse. When the kids saw that “wooden spoon”, their eyes about popped out of their heads. That was all it took.