Missouri schools are reinstituting corporal punishment against kids with a paddle. This violates the rights of the kid and it sets another precedent against bodily autonomy. The state is claiming the right to hit your kids.
Missouri schools are reinstituting corporal punishment against kids with a paddle. This violates the rights of the kid and it sets another precedent against bodily autonomy. The state is claiming the right to hit your kids.
I guess that makes sense? Maybe? I don’t quite get how someone could purposely hit children with anything and think it’s okay. I don’t get the thought process there. It’s certainly not “well my parents did it so it must be fine”. It seems so obvious and yet… I don’t know. I don’t get how it could take a lot of effort to not hit children. It’s an active choice, not a passive one, and it doesn’t seem like a difficult conclusion to come to. I’m confused more than anything. ~Strawberry
I understand why it’s confusing, but trauma changes how the brain works and once those neural pathways are created reinforcement becomes much more likely. Once everything is a fight-or-flight event it’s very hard to break free. Even now, decades later, I have a habit of over explaining as a defense mechanism just to proactively defuse potential misunderstandings (not always perfectly but I’m glad we’re having this conversation) both online and afk. Not everybody gets the opportunities to adapt and recover the way I did, so it feels important to respond with empathy for them.
For some more context, when I was in my 20s I decided I’d never have kids because I didn’t want to have to spank them. My dad always said if you truly love your kids you’ll spank them to keep them from sinning. His parents beat him, and in his mind he was doing it right and not being abusive.
I have a lot of issues and it took a lot of time to unlearn that mindset. I have a daughter now and she’s great! She’s also exhausting but we’ve never spanked her and never will.
Breaking a cycle of violence means confronting some difficult truths about the shortcomings of one’s own parents — from whom even adults can have a deep seated need for validation.