We had been training commands for several weeks and it started to feel comfortable and easy. As I said in the previous chapter, in the early days I often felt unsure of whether it was a good time to use discipline, and if it was something he should be disciplined for. The easy things were not doing chores. If I say "I want you to do the dishes before lunch" and the dishes weren't done when I was about to start lunch, it was a clear use for a spanking and didn't make it hard for me at all. The hard parts were when we got in an argument, when he got angry about something I had done. Was I in the right? Would he accept it? The other difficult one was when it was unclear. He had made it clear he would accept, and wanted, me to spank him for tone, attitude and backtalk.
But that is a fine line. So what I started with was a simple "when in doubt, issue a command". So if I thought that maybe there was a hint of a bad tone, I just said "pants down". He was immediately humbled and I could ask if he though he had a tone. Depending on the situation he might then get a little reward for following the command, or a spankign for his tone. Likewise, if got into an argument a "pants down" or "strip" diffused all situations. If I already knew he needed a spanking but was thrown off by his temper and behavior, a quick "strip", "corner" or "present yourself" gave me time to catch my thoughts and him to cool down.
Although it would take me months to actually realize it, the new regime was already improving our relationship. We were fighting a lot less, if at all, and I was almost never sad or upset, because he would end up over my knee before we got to that point. We had yet to reach the stage we would come to down the road, where I could actually say that he was a literal dream husband, but our relationship had really and tangibly improved. So why didn't I realize it at the time? I think a lot of women are raised to be very accepting and accommodating, and to some extent I think it is in our nature. Women (and men for that matter) adapt and normalize what is around them. So in the past I had quickly normalized that we would regularly get into arguments and sometimes fights, and now I had normalized that we didn't. But I didn't reflect on the change at the time. Instead it took me many months until I one day realized, I am just happier now than I was. And that, ladies, is the beauty of this. You can actually get a better relationship, a happier life, with a more attentive husband, while at the same time giving him something he craves for. A win-win. Of course it didn't happen over night. It was, as I have said, a journey rather than an event, which brings us back to the next stage of our journey.
I had started to be much more strict with discipline, but I knew he wanted more, and I did not yet feel that assertive. I read up on various humbling aspects of the female led relationship and one thing that seemed so simple, yet powerful, was panties. Yup, women's underwear. I don't think I call them panties ever outside our home, but it seems to be the term to use in the situation.
We had tried this before so it wasn't exactly new, but I wanted to find a simple way to step it up a notch without too much effort involved. What I ended up doing was to go online shopping with him. Now, in every story I have read online the woman always drags the man to a lingerie shop and loudly proclaims that they are buying him panties. I'm guessing that's just fantasy, but even if it isn't, that is way outside my comfort zone, and Michael's for that matter.
At first I didn't tell him exactly what the purpose was. Instead I asked him what he would like on me. After we had looked at a bunch, and he got all excited about me getting new sexy underwear, I asked him what kind of panties felt the most humiliating and submissive for him to wear. Turns out, it was largely the same as what he thought was hot on me, but perhaps slightly less girly. Well, actually, the girlier ones were even more humiliating but pretty much too humiliating for his comfort. That was fine with me. And so we ordered a bunch of underwear. Even though I got them for him to wear, this was still my underwear. We weren't about to replace his boxers with panties (again a favorite fantasy of the online community it seems).
We also looked at yoga pants. These are great because they are comfortable, feminine and humiliating to wear for a man, but still not so over the top like full on women's clothing. The combination also leans well into another aspect that we will be getting into.