Dear Care and Feeding,
I was raised in a multigenerational household. My mother was a single parent for most of my childhood, and at various times in my life, we lived with my maternal grandparents and my maternal great-grandmother. My great-grandmother was quite advanced in her age; she actually lived to be over 100 and died when I was 12. Since my mom and grandparents both worked, my great-grandmother was often my primary babysitter. My great-grandma was born in 1908. She had one of those hard, rural, country music–ass lives and, as a result, was a very tough and firm woman. To just be blunt about it, she used physical discipline: spoons, hairbrushes, switches, belts, rulers, etc.