That's kind of how I felt about it. I was not strong willed and it wasn't often that I was enough of a little ass to merit a spanking, but when I did, I did.
(Like the time when I was playing in the neighbor's wading pool and my mom sent my stepbrother out to tell me to come in and I wouldn't, though she sent him out several times. It was getting ready to storm and mom was inside with the baby and I was old enough to know better, I just didn't want to stop playing. I got the switch all the way home for that one.)
Normally though, my mom would spank, give me a little while to calm down, then hold me on her lap and explain why I couldn't do whatever it was I did and tell me how much she loved me and that would be the end of it.
Now I will be the first to say that my mom is a nutcase in many, many ways, but IMO, she did a fantastic job with the discipline the majority of the time (she could have stood to be a little stricter with chores, etc). The instability in my childhood was somewhat traumatic, but the spankings? In my mind they really were a non-event and the few I remember I laugh about now.
My grandma was overall, a more stable influence in my life and I miss her terribly, but no spanking I ever received from my mom was as damaging to my psyche as my grandma's shaming. I would gladly have taken a beating over that.
Wow! that was a spooky experience!
Happened to me too but I was in a lake.
Spanking by anyone but Grandma was a non-event... totally irrelevant and forgetable.
Grandma was sooo important.... she nicknamed me what I use here... but cutting and getting smacked by those switches were nothing compared to having dissapointed her. I miss her sooo much and owe so much of who I am to her... spankings included.