Stats:Name: Adrian Peterson
Age: 29
Kids: 7
Married: Yes (One child with his wife. Been with his wife since high school. Just married her this summer.)
I'm a child of abuse. Because of this, I think I'm very conscious of the difference between spankings and beatings (ABUSE).
Adrian Peterson is too.
When I see children being spanked by my framily, it's done very controlled. The child knew what was going to happen and why. It was spelled out. The child was told that they were getting x amount of swats to the behind and the swats were counted down. 5 swats?
SWAT!
One.
Calm down...you have 4 more to go.
No windmilling. No belt grabbing. No being drug through the house. Hold on to the bed post and clench your butt.
The person delivering the punishment is not angry normally because they know that anger can quickly make things get out of hand. That same anger that fueled them to put the boontoon down needs to be calmed down and rationalized before the child is disciplined via corporal punishment. ESPECIALLY if the child is little.
And probably never when the child was only 4. Because normally all a 4 year old needs is a pop to the hand.
I have probably issued spankings to children I love and whose parents trust me to spank their child no more than a handful of times. If that. And I know for sure that you can't react when you're angry because, again...that could get out of hand real quick like. #FurnitureMoving
I believe there are circumstances by which you might need to show up and show out. When and if teenagers buck up to you that first time...I believe you need to deal with that then in whatever manner it's brought to you. You do it once and well and you'll never have to do it again. IN MY OPINION. I've had a teenager test me directly ONCE and only once.
But when they're 4?
Nah. Pop to the hand is all that is needed. Pop to the hand and an explanation of why you're disappointed in their behavior. Some down time and redirection. Oh...and checking yourself to see what, if anything, you may have missed that is causing them to continue to act out.
The most disturbing thing to me about Adrian Peterson is that he's already lost a child to child abuse so he knows the extreme of how that can go wrong real quick with anger as a factor. I mean hey...even though he'd never met that poor baby, he received such a public pouring of sympathy for his loss, one would think that would have changed something in this thought process as it relates to spankings and beatings (ABUSE).
And how smart can you be if you're going to put marks on a child that you're sending back to their mother BEFORE the marks are gone? Dude...you were asking for it. And dude...HE WAS FLIPPING 4!!!!!!!!
Now as to the media reports that he beat the child with a branch...I guess you can call it that. It branched off of a tree but it was a switch. I've had that done before. I've also had it done when I was naked and fresh out of the shower wet. Stings better. ABUSE.
I know child abuse firsthand. When you know better...you should do better. That excuse that you were beat and you turned out right is a fallacy. You didn't turn out right if you think that the abuse you suffered is okay to pass along. Sometimes cultural norms can be pretty fucked up practices we ignore all in the name of "MIND YA BUSINESS."
I didn't turn out right. I turned out some brand of fugged up that I had to work hard at putting back together right. Just think of what I could have accomplished if I hadn't had to put so much work into making sure I ended up right.
#TruthDotCom
What are YOUR thoughts on spanking/beating with a switch on a 4 year old? Discipline or child abuse?
