It’s a distinction without a difference - hitting a little kid is wrong. Full stop.
Hell, I go so far as to say hitting anyone is bad.
I’m also totally creeped out that using the word “routine” is considered okay as in the same sentence as “spanking”.
From the OP’s link:
They only hit until you cry
After then you don’t ask why
You just don’t argue any more
You just don’t argue any more
You just don’t argue any more
And how much damage did AP intend to cause? That’s one reason why people come down on the side of not spanking. So often, spanking doesn’t get the desired results, so it escalates until we’re talking about welts.
I believe the child in question is 4 years old.
The child lives in another state and was on a visitation with his dad when the incident occurred.
Peterson texted the mother of the boy to alert her to the incident and seemed to make light of it. It appears to me that he realized she would see the marks when the boy was returned to her and was attempting to smooth things over before she saw the marks.
When the child was returned to the mother, she claimed some of the marks were still bleeding. I think she meant the wounds were still fragile and capable of bleeding when disturbed. You can see scabbing in the pictures.
From the pictures I saw, I counted at least 10 whip marks that were very clear, and there could be up to 20 if you count what appear to be less severe or more faded marks. I believe the marks were already 4-5 days old when the pictures were taken.
Peterson allegedly Tweeted these comments:
“People understand that if you are on God’s course and suppose to have that position and man decides to remove you know that God will remove everyone to place you rightfully! You matter!”
and
“Its your season! Weapons may form but won’t prosper! God has you covered don’t stress or worry!”
He has also claimed that ‘this was the way he was raised.’
I think Peterson will soon find God will abandon him here. He will likely face legal charges and lose his job over this.
He should.
Actually he sounds mentally ill.
Welts on the kid’s scrotum. Can we agree that’s not acceptable?
I’m 56 and can say with certainty I’ve never had welts on my scrotum, nor have I ever caused welts on anyone else’s scrotum.
Yep.
Well, he should lose the job. But that’s not likely.
I’m against physical punishment for children. That said, I can see situations where my child is about to reach for a hot pan, or run out into the road where an instinctive slap could be given. I don’t think it is good or right but I can certainly understand if that ape-brain were to intervene for a second or two.
However, I think that is a world away from a calm-headed decision to administer multiple hits or even…FFS…taking the effort to go a get a suitable branch and whip your child until the skin is broken.
I think it’s important to acknowledge a difference between disciplining your child with slings and a few shots with a belt and “beatings”, like what AP is guilty of.
Didn’t Peterson lose another child a while back? How many kids does he have all together?
I think he had another child with some other woman who died at the hands of that woman’s current boyfriend.
While that is clearly not Peterson’s fault, maybe he should consider wrappin’ that rascal since he doesn’t seem to protect of care for his offspring all that well whether they are in his care of not.
The child is four years old. That is crazy. The multiple wounds show that this is an out-of-control father. What could possibly be going through his mind when he was doing that?
There could very well be people who were physically disciplined and are OK, but with this level of abuse and at this young of age, no. Certainly my siblings and I carry emotional scars which last much longer than the breaks in the skin. Three out of the five of us have attempted suicide, one is homeless, another completely incapable of working. My niece just attempted suicide and the adult children on another sibling appear to have their share of demons.
Back in the 60s, we were given medical care without questions. They just cleaned us up, fixed the bones and let us go.
Damn. Another generation.
Ooooh-kay…that’s a second person who apparently needs to clean his/her eyeglasses, literally or figuratively.
What part of “beat the hell out of me” and “this case” didn’t you understand in my original post?
Lighten up, Francis. I wasn’t necessarily disagreeing with your post, but using it to make a related point. There are many shades of gray between giving a kid one smack on the butt and putting him in the hospital.
So, you may want to clean your own glasses.
Not in my opinion, not “shades of gray” if by that you mean the less-than-bright boundaries between terrible abuse and benign, well-intentioned corporal punishment. I think they’re just the opposite ends of the same spectrum of abuse. The best that can be said about the “benign” end is that it’s a violence that may not create any long-term damage. If we’re lucky, it’s minor enough that we can look back on it and rationalize it as “not so bad” and “for our own good.”
I think it’s just one of those cultural anchors that’s wearing away–we can’t, for risk of offending lots and lots of people, call it what it is. It makes us think of our parents and grandparents and ourselves in a way that’s very uncomfortable. That’s why we give it names like “routine spankings.” To make it different not just by degree but in its very nature. But at some point, not sure how long in the future, we’ll dispense with the concern over such offense. It’ll go the way of other cultural dinosaurs, and everyone still standing, or most of us anyway, will be glad. People will shake their heads over the thought that at one point people thought there were acceptable levels of violence to use on our children.
IMO, of course.
It just means that Adrian will be playing for Dallas now. 
Hey, that’s a pretty harsh punishment!
When I was a kid I got whooped often, and in retrospect I deserved each and every one of them. We even had an instrument for the purpose, a wiffle ball bat called “The Enforcer”. I recall a particular incident where I knew I was going to get it when my parents got home so I put on 5 pairs of pants. When they got home I looked like the Michelin Man, and my dad was laughing so hard he couldn’t do it. I also recall insulting my dad and then running. He caught me at the top of the stairs and he finished when I got to the bottom of them, with a 90 degree turn in the middle.
They never used a belt, they never drew blood, and in retrospect they never hit me that hard, just enough to get the point across. Now, you may not agree with that sort of parenting, but I got the message and I turned out a lot better than anybody thought I would at the time.
I mention this because there is no comparison between this and that. What Adrian Peterson did to that kid is just criminal. It is now, and even in the good old days when nobody gave a second thought to spanking children it would have been.
My name is not Francis, I don’t need to lighten up, and you would do better to make your points on your own time, as they don’t have much to do with what I wrote.
Further, you might want to make your points a little more clearly:
What are “slings” in this context? And “difference between” indicates two alternatives. You list three, so two out of the three must be grouped together. Which two?
If I had to guess (and obviously, I do), it looks as if you’re putting “a few shots with a belt” in the “OK” category. I hope you’ll explain further.
Sloppy typing. Sorry. “Spankings”.
Most likely, yes. Like I said it’s a gray area. The whole thing is a a continuum. AP went too far. But most people who physically discipline their child don’t. Some go further and should be locked up.
Disagree. I see nothing wrong with, for instance, spanking a child. It can be done properly and cause no long term reaction other than the kid remembering that doing X has bad consequences.
Adrian Peterson, you Manly-Man, you beat the fuck out of a 4 year old! What’s next for you?
“I’m going to Disneyland!”
Ha. I have a similar story. I was in 6th grade. The new principal, a big guy, had a paddle hanging on his wall and he claimed that you were to get one warning and then the paddle got used. being the experts in law that all of us were, we were sure that there was no way he could hit us. And I think we told him that if he did we’d sue him. Well, me and another kid had our warnings. Then the paddle came off the wall. We were still sure this was a bluff to intimidate us. Then he picked up the phone and called my mom. “Mrs. Magellan. Little Magellan here did such-and-such. He was warned, now he’s earned a swat from the paddle that everyone knows about. But I need your permission to swat him.” So, nice try pal, but my mom (very loving, very protective) is on my side. Right? Wrong. I heard her through the phone. “Go right ahead. And give him one for me!”. So I got the swat.
The next time I was due two swats. Well, I told my teacher that I had to go to the bathroom. I got in there and folded up paper towels and put them in my back pockets. Two problems, it was obvious and once I bent over, they didn’t protect from the paddle. A few time later, when I was up to like 7 swats, I again went to the bathroom and put a bunch of paper towels in my underwear. I go into his offe=ice and he says stand up and bend over. I do and he sees big lumpy wads. He laughed and gave me a choice. Okay, Magellan, you can either take out all the padding or drop your pants. I took them out and got my whacks.
By the way. This principal was a great guy. A big, intimidating man who was very kind, but firm. I don’t know of any kid who went to the school who dislike him. Even those of us who made it up to 17 swats by the end of the year.