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SPANKING THE EXCHANGE STUDENT

by James Hammond


I was surprised when we got the call. Our daughter was in college and we'd not had an exchange student come and stay with us for a couple of years. I didn't even know that they'd kept our number. The problem was that they had a girl coming and they didn't have a place to put her. The family that she was scheduled for had a crises and had to decline at the last minute, so here was this 15-year-old from the Philippines who wanted to be in the US, was scheduled to be here in our area by the beach, and now she had nowhere to go.

I knew by the call that they were desperate. The last time we had a young lady over from another country, she and Jennifer had got themselves into some trouble at school. With Jen, we believed that there were times when an old fashioned spanking solved a lot of problems, but this other girl, whose name was Beth, wasn't ours. So we called her parents, and while they were a little uncomfortable with it, they agreed that since she was living with us then we should treat her the same as we did our own daughter. Because of that they both got a fairly sound spanking.

Beth didn't resent it; in fact she thanked us for it the next morning and seemed closer to the family afterwards. Unfortunately the Exchange organization didn't see it the same way. We were told that we would no longer be eligible to receive students from other countries. Both my wife and I were not concerned. We had simply done what we believed was right, and the young lady's family had agreed, so the opinion of an organization who didn't know us or our girls didn't matter to us. Beth and our family remain close to this day; she stays with us from time to time and she still calls us Mom and Dad.

Based on that both my wife and I knew the Exchange organization needed someone urgently, and apparently, even though it was known what had happened, our certification had never been revoked. Both of us were of the same mind and we quickly said yes, we would love to have this darling girl over for a week while they found other accommodations for her. So an hour later she arrived on our doorstep. It was the beginning of the school year and our daughter had left for her sophomore year of college just the day before.

As it turned out, Maria was a delightful girl; polite and respectful but a bit unaware of how we lived. She had been raised by maids all her life, and she entertained us with stories about them and how they did anything to keep her happy. She had to learn how to make a bed before she got here, but one lesson was really not enough, so we had to re-teach her. If she wanted to help herself to a snack, she would also forget to close the refrigerator door and put away the milk.

Three days into her stay we got a call. There was a family in Fresno willing to take her. They had a 15-year-old in school so it seemed a good idea. But after we told Maria about the offer and where it was, she asked us if she could stay with us. It seemed that she had gotten to like us, and the mild scoldings she'd received hadn't diminished her affection for us.

So here was this young lady who had never been disciplined at home asking to stay with a couple who had no children at home, and who were known in the Exchange organization for their application of corporal punishment on one of their previous charges. We cared for the girl and would have loved her to stay, but we felt we needed to be very clear with her about what living in our house meant.

After a great deal of discussion with my wife Annie, we then sat Maria down to discuss this issue with her. We wanted her to know that while we understood that she'd been raised with maids and was used to getting things her own way, that life here was going to be very different. We told her about the incident with Beth and our daughter Jennifer when they were older than she was. We also told her that the Exchange organization she was working with didn't approve and didn't want us to have any more students staying with us.

Maria told us that she'd been informed about us before we were called and that she understood. She also told us that she loved the beach and thought the world of us and hoped we liked her too. We assured her that we did. She told us that she didn't think she would mind the risk of a spanking if she deserved one, but that she thought she could avoid them. She then asked us some questions: what was high school like here? Would she make friends? What kind of parties were there? She went on to ask us some specifics about discipline, and told us a bit about her family life.

She told us she didn't remember her mom as she had died when Maria was very young. Her father never remarried, leaving Maria the only child and the only one of her friends without five or six siblings. Her father loved her and didn't have the heart to say no to anything she wanted. He was also never home. The idea of a mother and a father in a home and having dinner together every night intrigued her, and she had to come to love our home. She also said she was enjoying having some rules to follow; that was a new thing for her.

She asked us about discipline and if there were going to be more rules other than the ones she had already. (Make the bed, close the door when you go out, and put away food you use were the only rules we had given her so far.) We informed her that she would have a curfew and that we expected her to get all her homework done. She would need to help with the housework and do the dishes on most nights. We told her our daughter had been spanked when she disobeyed and that worked well with her, so Maria could expect the same treatment. The expression on her face was priceless as we went through all of this, ranging from surprise to apprehension. Life would certainly be different if she chose to stay.

We told her that either my wife or I might punish her and that most spankings were done on bare skin. We told her that often we just used our hand as a reminder to try harder or do better, but if there was something that we really didn't like then we brought out a hairbrush. We informed her that spankings are unpleasant and our daughter usually cried, even from the hand spankings. We wanted to be very clear that she would be punished if she stayed and then stepped out of line. We wanted her to be clear so that if she wanted to stay we could honestly tell both her father and the Exchange organization that she had chosen with full knowledge of what would happen if she was out of line.

We left her in her room to think about her decision. About an hour later she came into the living room where we were both sitting reading. She sat down and I noticed how cute she looked. She was wearing a white blouse, shorts and cute blue tennis shoes. She looked nervous and scared as she came in and asked if she could talk to us again. We both put down our respective magazines and I said, "Sure, Maria. What's on your mind?"

"Do you guys really want me to stay, or would you rather I move to Fresno?"

I realized as I looked at her that she felt like we might reject her and not want her here and that scared her more than anything else. We told her that we both thought she was great and that anybody would be proud to have her as a daughter, even an adopted one for a year. We told her that in the short week we'd had her to stay, we'd grown to love and care for her, but we wanted what was best for her. We knew that discipline was new to her and that she might have a hard time with it suddenly being in her life.

Maria wanted to know if we thought the discipline would be good for her and if we would only punish her if we felt she needed it and would grow from it. Both my wife and I were surprised by the question as it showed a fairly deep understanding of our thoughts and intentions. We assured her that we would only spank her if we felt that it was best for her to learn a lesson, and we were still concerned about how she would react.

That is when we got the shock of the day. She said that she wanted to see how she would handle it. So she asked us to spank her right then. I think both our mouths dropped a bit. Our immediate answer was an emphatic no. Spankings are not for play time and she hadn't done anything to deserve it. We also didn't have permission from her dad.

She told us that her dad would do what she wanted him to, and to her that was a problem sometimes. She went on to tell us that while discipline was scary to her, she realized that she needed it sometimes. A spanking would tell her if it would help or just make her want to pack up and leave. And she didn't want to find out after it was too late and she was already in school. She asked us what we would do if we caught her cheating at school.

My wife said for something that serious, she would spank her as soon as she found out and then have me spank her later to really emphasize that cheating or any kind of dishonesty is not acceptable at all.

Maria said that she had a reason to be spanked, admitting that her maid had done a lot of her homework last year and her father, when he found out, hadn't said a thing; he didn't even tell her to stop. She felt she should be punished for that.

I think our mouths were still hanging open when Maria finished talking. It was my wife who finally spoke.

"Sweetheart, we understand what you are saying and what you want. You just need to understand that if we punish you for this, it will be a real punishment. You won't be able to stop in the middle and change your mind. And you WILL want to change your mind. Are you sure you want to go through with it?"

In what might have been the smallest voice I have ever heard, Maria looked at both of us with tears forming in her eyes. "Yes," was all she said.

We sent her back to her room so my wife and I could discuss the situation and decide what to do about this request. I won't bore you with all of the details, but the upshot was that if Maria wanted to stay here then she needed to know how we deal with such things and how she would deal with us. We wished that she hadn't chosen something so harsh, but we warned her, and this way she would learn that her choices mean consequences that she needs to live with.

We called her back and asked if she really felt we should punish her for something she had done a year ago.



© James Hammond
Not to be reposted, reproduced or distributed, in part or whole.