“My wife used a wooden spoon.
All she had to do was head toward the drawer and it straightened them righ out.”
It only took about twice with the wooden spoon for my kids to figure out I was serious if I reached for it. And no, I didn’t beat or bruise them, but at around age 3, it did leave and impression on their egos and enough of a sting to know that mom meant business. Both of them graduated from college last year with honors.
Congratulations.
The other rule is not to threaten them to wait for daddy to get home. If kids need punishing they need it at the time of the offense.