Adrian Peterson - Child Abuse?

[me]

I agree with Anne.  To do something like that to a 4 yr old is just unreal.  Swat them on the rear a couple of times or something but to leave marks like that is just totally ridiculous. I had a razor strap used on me, until I hid it no one ever found it, then it was a belt but I never had marks left on me by either one.  I used my bare hand or my flimsy house slipper on my kids and never left marks on them. 

[Purplelady1040]

I totally agree with Anne. I use my hand or a shoe but nothing beyond that and I have found taking things away from my kids hurts them a lot worse!

[Henry Hawk]

I have no problem with a parent using a switch or a paddle or even just a firm hand on the ass...most of us learned a great deal about life and respect for authority with this form of teaching.  My only problem with this is the fact it was ONLY A FOUR YEAR OLD!  If those pictures are indeed the results for a  FOUR YEAR OLD.....then, in my opinion, he crossed the line, in my book.....but, I think everybody has probably come close to crossing the line in some form or fashion, without harmful intentions.  I hate to see a persons career thrown in the toilet, if this was indeed just a case of going a little too far with honest regret.

I think like PH that as a parent you have to wait until you calm down before you inflict a punishment on a child.  If not, I think THIS is what happens.

[Bo D]

See! Already we have three perfectly normal and productive human beings testifying to the effectiveness of the switch. 

Maybe 'normal' is going a bit too far.

[Henry Hawk]

Maybe 'normal' is going a bit too far.

I wasn't going to say anything, BUT.....

[libby]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. My grandfather would give me the option of picking out my own switch.

Your grandfather was a wise man. My old friend Charlie, a lawyer, told me once that his father did basically the same with him, and once, when he did something he knew was bad, his father asked him what he thought his punishment should be, and he told his dad he should get a switching. So his dad told him to choose the switch. He said he was so ashamed of what he'd done that he chose a big one.

When I first heard that a "switch" was used on the boy, I thought, "me, too." But on a 4-year-old? No. And never while angry.

My father, who was of German descent, grew up being switched.  He was very protective and strict with my four sisters and me; kept us in line with threats of, or actual switching. I only remember one specific whipping (but not why), and that is because of what happened afterwards: I was taking a shower after gym class when one girl said, in a shocked voice: "Libby! What happened to you?" What happened was that daddy had whipped me and apparently left "stripes" down my back and buttocks and the backs of my legs. I was so humiliated I wanted to die; instead, I said I got caught in some briars. I told my mother about it, and she, usually a very quiet person, said some very specific things to my father. I really hated him for a while after that, but in his defense, he changed. Stopped drinking and got religion. And died young: age 48, of lung cancer. He would've been very proud of his girls.

[Purplelady1040]

Libby, my late father-in-law was the same way according to my husband when he was growing up. He said one time his father used a belt or switch on him so hard that he had marks on his legs. He said his father regretted doing that.

[Palehorse]

Wow. . . you guys have led some sheltered lives, and I bet you likely had to deal with some hellions along the way. Either that or you are in denial. . .

[Purplelady1040]

Wow. . . you guys have led some sheltered lives, and I bet you likely had to deal with some hellions along the way. Either that or you are in denial. . .

Nope, I got spanked with a switch, a razor belt, a regular belt or a horse whip depending on what my grand-father or mom could grab!!

[The Troll]

Nope, I got spanked with a switch, a razor belt, a regular belt or a horse whip depending on what my grand-father or mom could grab!!

  I don't thinik he should lose his job, how is he going to take care of his boys if he is broke.   

[Purplelady1040]

  I don't thinik he should lose his job, how is he going to take care of his boys if he is broke.   

He should have thought about that before he tried to inflict the discipline that he was attempting to use on a 4 year old child. I meant lets get real, no child  deserves that, I don't care what they have done to piss a parent off, that was just cruel and abusive.

[Palehorse]

He should have thought about that before he tried to inflict the discipline that he was attempting to use on a 4 year old child. I meant lets get real, no child  deserves that, I don't care what they have done to piss a parent off, that was just cruel and abusive.

Again, I disagree and if this is indeed found to be a "legally actionable" case, then there are 10's of millions of parents that should be in jail; and even more children that should be wards of the respective states within which they live.

In fact, I'd say they should all be sent to the conservative states; since they're already on the government tit and these millions of kids can get some benefits there.

[Purplelady1040]

Again, I disagree and if this is indeed found to be a "legally actionable" case, then there are 10's of millions of parents that should be in jail; and even more children that should be wards of the respective states within which they live.

In fact, I'd say they should all be sent to the conservative states; since they're already on the government tit and these millions of kids can get some benefits there.

I understand PH but I just feel that his form of discipline was extreme and to hit a 4 yr. old in a scrotum, what point was he making with that? I am sorry but that was not necessary on that part. I do agree that there are tons of kids who need to be taken away from their abusive parents but you have a court system to blame for that and social workers who often don't want to do the job.

[The Troll]

He should have thought about that before he tried to inflict the discipline that he was attempting to use on a 4 year old child. I meant lets get real, no child  deserves that, I don't care what they have done to piss a parent off, that was just cruel and abusive.

  I don't know how you were raised and I don't care.   If we had the bleeding hearts back when I was a child my mother and all the kids I knew mothers would have been put in jail.  For she carried a big stick.  But I know she love us and that was the only way she knew how to raise kids.  For she was treated in worse ways than us.

  You bleeding hearts think that when as person makes a mistake that person should lose everything especially his or her livelyhood.  I can't believe that you are a perfect mother in every way.  Give us a break.     

[Palehorse]

I understand PH but I just feel that his form of discipline was extreme and to hit a 4 yr. old in a scrotum, what point was he making with that? I am sorry but that was not necessary on that part. I do agree that there are tons of kids who need to be taken away from their abusive parents but you have a court system to blame for that and social workers who often don't want to do the job.

You entitled to your opinions, but I don't want to hear you stating parents need to discipline their children to keep them from becoming social misfits.

Time outs, grounding, and privilege removal does absolutely nothing to correct acts of misbehavior deserving of corporal punishment. Nothing. . .

And in ten years after this case is decided, when there are millions of children that are wards of the states, and their parents incarcerated, and funding to care for them is bleeding the revenue stream of these states dry, what will you say then?

The fact is, I am not alone in feeling that Peterson was within his parental rights to discipline his child. I've been switched a lot worse than that child was, and I never repeated the behaviors that led to those acts of punishment. And yes, I was right around the same age as his child was when I began receiving those punishments.