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In reply to the discussion: Spanking Child With Wooden Spoon Not Child Abuse, Says State Court [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I DON'T define success the same way you do.
Success to me is an adult who is empathetic, gentle, caring, helps others and is at peace with their life and their upbringing. I don't give 2 shits about 'successful'... and 'functioning' is the BARE MINIMUM of what I expect for any adult and I sure don't count that as some sort of measure of success as a parent. Most kids who have the shit beat out of them on a regular basis grow up to be 'functioning'. The same way my dad, who abused me and was abused, is happy with his life, and is an 'upstanding member of the community' and is 'functioning' in society just fine with a great job, has a 'happy marriage' and 2 'successful' children - one engineer and one almost done a Bcom in accounting. The same way my dad is a 'functioning' alcoholic and scares his grandkids when he drinks too much - he never hurts them or even yells at them, but he's a drunk just the same. Yet, I don't know of anyone who would call him a 'failure' but that's exactly what he is in my book for hitting his 18 month old baby girl (who still remembers it like it was yesterday). And my 'successful' engineer brother is also a weekend binge drinker, a racist (married to a wonderful woman of mixed race) and a conservative (an atheist conservative, but a conservative just the same) and I'm just thankful he doesn't have kids. He has dogs that he loses his temper on all the time.
He is just more proof to support all those studies show that children who are spanked are more violent. It doesn't matter if they are 'functioning' in society - that's a failure in my book. I expect SO much more.
What YOU are saying is that only if your kids are a criminal/drug addict/homeless can you claim their parents are 'failures'. I say that's a false measurement. And I again ask you if you believe that psychology is a science. It seems as if you don't. You seem stuck on 'subjective'. All psychology is subjective. Many medical studies are 'subjective' as well but they count just the same and are done in the same way - propose a theory, gather test subjects...you DO know that most medical studies aren't double blinds, right?
So - do you believe in psychology? or do you think it's woo?