Welcome to the boards! Here’s your welcome in the form of having your balls roasted.
In the thread “Don’t Touch My Sister,” you said…
(italics mine)
I really, really hope you’re using sarcasm in your post when you talk about physically harming your own child to the degree that they’d need a wheelchair because they refuse to eat what you make them for dinner. Because if you aren’t, you really, really don’t deserve the love of a child, or anyone else, for that matter. NO ONE should cause physical harm to their child, not to that degree, certainly not for a dispute over roast beef. Debate the semantics of spanking, if you like; a lot of people feel that physical punishment that does not leave marks or any permanent injuries is allowable, and I’m not here to debate that fact. But this? This is insanity, a criminal insanity.
Please, tell me I’ve been whooshed. Tell me I missed his joke at 5 in the morning. I’d much rather hear that I made a fool of myself than hear that what he had to say is true.
Pardon me if I am wrong, but while I may discplined (may! MAY!) my child with a cane reasonably (if it warrants it), I won’t let anyone else lay a finger on my children. He/she is my child, I am the father/mother, so it’s none of your business!, especially (ESPECIALLY!) when you are just a passer-by!
There seem to be more and more long-time posters who seem to be unable to spot over-the-top hyperbole anymore. Lately, I’ve been conscious myself to avoid what should be obvious exaggerations without clearly marking them thus.
Had a discussion here at work recently how every parent should be allowed a ‘mulligan’. Fortunately, no one saw it as anything more than harmless fun. Put that same conversation here and the sarcasm-detection deficient would be all over me.
If it were me you were pitting for a similar comment (and I make them all the time even though it has been extraordinarily rare for me to use any physical punishment, and now that both kids are double-digits, corporal punishment is highly likely to never happen again; capital punishment is another story*), I wouldn’t bother defending myself. That type of comment doesn’t need defending.
*See, that’s hyperbole. A statement that none but the criminally insane would act out. Not meant to be taken seriously if said by anyone whose name is not Brian David Mitchell.
Okay, look: Here’s my POV. Spanking is a grey area. Corporal punishment beyond that is assault. If I hit you with a cane because I didn’t like what you had to say or did, that would land me in jail. We don’t cane prisoners in this country. There was a national outcry when a kid tagging cars in Singapore was caned. And quite frankly, the welfare of your child is my business if you are physically damaging that child. And I’m speaking about calling a parent on a move, like a parent throwing their kid to the floor (My girlfriend saw this at Target, and if I’d seen it firsthand I would have said something.) I would certainly not go to the length of disciplining another person’s child.
And I have a 5-month-old boy. Obviously, he’s not at any stage of “sassing” me or anything else. But my girlfriend’s sisters are small terrors, 6 and 8. And I’ve seen their behavior grow worse when their dad has hit them. And the reason they are terrors is bad parenting, really bad parenting, parenting that common sense would tell you is bad. I got sent to my room on occasion and a few time-outs as a kid, and you know what? That worked. I was fine. Never spanked or hit.
I want to personally thank those of you who ‘get it’. There’s no need for me to respond to this senseless pitting. Anyone who could take what I said as anything but hyperbole has clearly, to me at least, lost touch with their sense of humour.
[OFF TOPIC]
I don’t enjoyed being caned either. My grandfather and my ma did it but I realise that, at my age, it worked (in a way…), and it wasn’t reckless caning, or out of anger, it’s just they did when they deem what I done was really, really wrong.
(I’m not from the US, so I am not sure about the laws there).
But then again, I was just being over-dramatic. So relax, I wouldn’t do it – I know it wouldn’t work too. I guess you could call that a hyperbole? (Is that what it is supposed to be called?). What’s the pont of getting someone to submit to you by brute force?
The point is that even if (EVEN IF) I do punish my children physcially, disciplinary problem is the family’s problem, not up to a total stranger walking pass by (Good grief, what if the two of us were just joking?). I haven’t have any children yet, so excuse my inexperienced comments with a pinch of salt, peper and chilli.
you could have saved the hampsters by simply replying to me in the thread and asking me if I was being sarcastic rather than creating a new one. Now my record is stained for all eternity because my first pitting was over nothing, you bastard. I hope you get a canker sore!
Oh yeah, since I now know who I am dealing with, I suppose I need to lay out one of these [:D]
So relax, I wouldn’t do it – I know it wouldn’t work too. I guess you could call that a hyperbole? (Is that what it is supposed to be called?). What’s the pont of getting someone to submit to you by brute force?