"spare the rod, spoil the child" is an interesting piece that articulates a couple of points really nicely - in particular the distinction between a spanking and actually hitting one's child. to be fair, i wouldn't know where to begin defining that distinction and i'm extremely uncomfortable with the topic.
i don't actually believe that there's a "right way" to raise one's children, because i've never come across anyone who could tell you what to do for any given situation and would already know the results - we're all a little more complex than that.
on the other hand, i do believe that there are "wrong ways", and i won't spare a moment's grace in saying that beating one's children is one of them. so is being too lenient.
the bottom line, i guess, is that i don't actually have much in the way of an opinion on how to raise little people. but i do know that the very idea of hitting someone - regardless of their relationship to me - upsets me. enough that i cannot imagine myself so much as spanking a child of mine, and for the first time i find myself able to identify a bit with my brother as opposed to merely understand.
unfortunately, this argument has brought gn1 and i to a rather precarious situation - if i wasn't so agitated about the whole ordeal i would be appreciating the fact that we've gotten to a point where we mean enough to each other to be as upset post-argument as we are.
she's satisfied with my personal attitude, but vehemently against my opinion on child-rearing in general, and i'm frustrated at how difficult it was to express my feelings to her because she contextualized and added meaning to things that i was saying when i wasn't able to articulate myself (in any language, switching to english wouldn't have helped).
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