(Think: misbehaving kids.) But we have to be responsible for consciously choosing whether or not we should continue to live by a default script or turn the page. We tend to default to parenting the way we were parented, particularly in times of stress. It’s true that the way we were raised is one of the strongest factors in determining our own parenting script. “I was paddled and I turned out better than my friends who weren’t.” ![]() “I was whupped and it made me a better man.” “I was spanked and I turned out just fine.” In fact, in a public statement he said, “I have always believed that the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man.” Many adults use this line of reasoning when trying to justify spanking (or in this specific case, whipping with a “switch”) as a reasonable form of punishment. ![]() One of the repeating themes in Adrian Peterson’s defense - at least his PR defense - is that “whuppings” were just part of the way he was raised. ![]() Today, I want to address the reasons we use to rationalize spanking, and talk a little about setting broken tools aside. In my last post, I wrote about the slippery slope between spanking and child abuse, the slippery slope which appears to have pulled Adrian Peterson and much of the public discussion about spanking over the edge of the precipice.
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