( Pink hears her father’s footsteps)
At least according to singer Pink.
““I think parents need to beat the crap outta their kids… I think the whole spanking thing and how it’s gotten all PC (politically correct) is for the birds. My dad put me through a wall; it’s the only reason I’m still alive. I deserved it. I would have kicked me out when I was eight… I was not comfortable with authority or rules. I was bad.”
I was uncomfortable with rules as a child, mostly because said rules were arbitrary and moved like shifting sands. What’s a person supposed to do but rebel against them. When your own mother can’t be trusted not to pull a fast one on you, you’re supposed to lie in supplication and offer your belly? Nonsense. Whatever about being kicked out of a home at ’8′, being forced to leave home at 16 is no joke and it’s terrifying. Having no one in the world to rely on at that age is debilitating and I resent the shit out of my mother for making me a mean semi-feral bitch for so many years.
Her father put her through a wall. Well no wonder she has such a fucked up view of parenting. My mother tried to hurl me down a stairs, but somehow I don’t have a fucked up view of parenting because unlike Pink I can actually see how worthless and disabling that kind of terror tactic is. Trying to kill your children ≠ not good parenting.
I imagine, to give her some credit, she really means that disciplining of children has gone 180, and that the occasional child needs the occasional slap to put them in their place. This might be so, I cannot say, I have oft stood in a supermarket and wanted any number of parents to wrest control of their monsters and if a quick slap to the backside helped I would not knock it. But ‘beating the crap’ out of your kids? Seriously, if you have kids and you find yourself going that route, back the fucking truck up and think about how big you are, how much that poor kid probably loves you and is totally dependent on you and take a deep breath.
But you know, if beating the crap out of kids is the way forward who am I to argue with noted mother and PETA member, Pink.
November 3, 2010 at 10:13 am |
Anyone who thinks it’s wrong to beat an animal and right to beat a child needs to have their moral compass adjusted.
November 3, 2010 at 10:33 am |
Eactly. She wouldn’t dream of treating a dog that way.
* wonders would clicker training work on toddlers*
November 4, 2010 at 6:39 pm |
If it doesnt she can always whip out the shock collar
November 3, 2010 at 10:36 am |
each case needs to be taken on its own merits.
November 3, 2010 at 10:36 am |
Each case of what?
November 3, 2010 at 11:03 am |
She’s a gobshite for saying that out loud. Her thinking that way is fine by me as long as she doesn’t actually act on it but not saying it out loud to someone who will publish it. Gobshite.
I don’t remember ever getting slaps as a kid, I think the most effective and non violent thing my parents ever did was my Dad chasing me up the (wooden) stairs with the threat of “the larraps” which never happened but it was the fear of him catching me one day. I was more scared of the sound of the heavy shoes on the stairs really than any potential larraps.
I think nowadays people are a bit “oh my god UNHAND that child” but sometimes being too lax causes worst issues to occur. I am not talking about beating per se but a tap on the bum is not a hanging offence in my opinion. But as I said it’s the threat of what might happen that was more effective in my own case.
November 3, 2010 at 11:16 am |
Agreed Babs, a slap on the hand, or bum is not exactly going to unhinge the average child, putting them through a wall might.
November 3, 2010 at 11:20 am |
Exactly!
November 3, 2010 at 11:30 am |
We were never slapped either, though I think there was a very occassional whack of a wooden spoon. Actually I think it happened once and the threat of the wooden spoon was enough to stop us in our tracks.
Our parents just took our privilidges (can’t spell this morning) away. If we were allowed out to a disco until 11pm and came in at 11.30pm, we didn’t go to the disco again. No shouting, no arguments, just told to go to bed and that that was the end of the disco for a while. A good long while. They told us at the outset that this was the way it was going to work and we understood and accepted that. If we were in on time, we were allowed out again. If not, well, we knew the consequences.
Slapping a child achieves very little. Not allowing them any treats or nights out or nice things until they behave, that generally achieves something.
November 3, 2010 at 11:50 am |
My father didn’t slap either, he would say, ‘I am very disappointed in you’ which for some reason was worse than ANYTHING the Lilac Couch could throw at me.
November 3, 2010 at 2:21 pm |
Mammy Dunne had what we childer called ‘the looks’. If you got ‘the looks’ you were in for it. Stronger than any slap, I swear.
If you got home from school and she had ‘the looks’ on, you’d immediately hunt out the rest of your brothers and sisters and ask what happened and who had given her ‘the looks’. We used to KILL whoever it was, cos if one was in trouble, we all were!
November 3, 2010 at 2:55 pm
heh, fear and respect K, they sometimes go hand in hand.
November 3, 2010 at 12:10 pm |
Maybe the reason she was a little brat is because she was being put through a wall. I’m not a parent and wouldn’t go off making comments about how you should raise your kids but someone commented before if you tell a kid she’s bold, she’s going to be bold, so if you throw her through a wall then you’re gonna raise an angry kid…..with pink hair.
We had the wooden spoon as well, his name was Ricky, he lived above our cooker and he scared the beejaysus out of me but I can’t ever remember actually been walloped with it. My brothers did, but they’re boys and boys are stupid
November 3, 2010 at 12:12 pm |
Your folks named the wooden spooon?!
* laughs*
November 3, 2010 at 12:14 pm |
Yup! My mother saying “I’ll get Ricky” was enough to stop me in my tracks…still is!
November 3, 2010 at 1:41 pm |
When she told me the reasons why “I deserved it” & why “I would have kicked me out when I was eight…” I’d pick her up, as if she was still eight, hold her close and tell her that what was done to her was so wrong – and we’d have to do this for a while until she believed me.
November 3, 2010 at 1:46 pm |
That’s sweet Sniffle. I suspect she’d crush you like a bug though.
November 3, 2010 at 2:04 pm |
not before i snorgled her though.
November 3, 2010 at 2:36 pm |
Oh Jesus that’s a bit crazy. I am surprised at Pink, not that I have read much about her but I thought she was one of the few who refrained from talking nonsense. What an utter idiot, I’m sure her publicist will argue it was taken out of context or some shite like that. My door has long been open to some little dingers and I can tell you I have seen some shit in my limited time and I cannot for the life of me fathom why anyone would raise their hand to a child, be it a small slap or otherwise. I can honestly say I have never once had the inclination. Maybe it’s because they were not actually not my children but I’d be shocked if as soon as I became a parent I felt the need to physically chastise them. I mean they are only small you can manipulate them or take their toys or put them out of the room or leave the supermarket immediately and put them to bed. I’m sure that may come back to haunt me but what would make anyone want to hit a little dinger?
November 3, 2010 at 3:00 pm |
Dunno Nonny, I imagine most slaps occur when a parent has reached the end of their tether, or a quick slap to the hand can be a warning not to do something dangerous. There are differing views on slapping.
That said I once saw a man slap a child in the airport, open palm as hard as you like across the little kid’s face. I nearly had to be retrained from going up and kicking him in the guts.
November 3, 2010 at 3:39 pm |
I think there are two different categories though, the ones who do extreme things like you mentioned for reasons like substance abuse, mental illness or just plain evil pig’ness and then there are those who really believe they are disciplining their children but use sever force like with canes and belts or just hitting them really hard. I think both should be condemned. Without going into too much detail, I had a little person for a couple of weeks; he had been subjected to a lot of physical punishment. Naturally, everybody was appalled but I took a primary school class a couple of weeks back and could not believe what I saw. Normally in little dinger school the little people all gather in their class line in the school yard, at ten to nine or whatever time the relevant school starts the teachers go out and march their line in to class. When I was getting my class a foreign man was physically boxing one of my little dingers in the head, like properly punching him. I interrupted him told him that what he was doing was disgraceful, reminded him he was in a school setting, that he was frightening all the children including his own, that school had started and he was delaying the class etc. At the end of school I was taken aside by the principle and told that it was their culture and I was to mind my own business in future. She advised me that if he complained about me to the board I could land myself in hot water. I could not believe it. Now I am not a teacher so I don’t give a shit but what the hell is that about?
November 3, 2010 at 3:47 pm |
If you’re not a teacher why would you give a fuck what the board thought?
November 3, 2010 at 4:26 pm
I don’t, I was more thinking it is hard to distinguish between what is acceptable and what is not. It strange the way we can be appalled by one case of abuse but seem to tolerate other forms of abuse on “culture” grounds. And also if you were a teacher would you really get formally reprimanded for intervening like I did.
November 4, 2010 at 3:41 pm
So you just let him away with beating the crap out of a child. Good work.
November 4, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Ehh no, think we are having a communication problem. I did intervene and I did pass it on to social services (who do fuck all)the point I was making was that I got a bollicking for interfering. You see?
November 3, 2010 at 3:45 pm |
No idea. But culture has bog all to do with it as the Roscommon case proved, some people are just down right arseholes to kids.
November 3, 2010 at 4:27 pm |
Agreed Ms Cat.
November 3, 2010 at 7:48 pm |
I beat my son all the time… at games like chess, cards and connect 4.
I have never raised my hand to my kids, and they are good kids who don’t create havoc in the world. If you hit your kids, what you are teaching them is that the way to get what you want is to use violence.
The problem is too many people equate disciplne with violence. If our children step out of line and cause danger or discomfort to themselves or others, then it addressed and dealt with. Disciplines are enforced, along with explanations and discussions.
And oddly enough they seem very well adjusted
November 3, 2010 at 8:12 pm |
Wait, you haven’t put them through walls or hurled them down a flight of stairs? And yet…you still are a parent to them!?
See Pink!
Parenting.
He’s doing it right!
Funnily enough, I trained my old dog in much the same way. I wonder if punching him or threatening him with violence might have worked better, or would I have ended up with a scared frightened animal who was liable to bite if pressed. Oh no, wait, I don’t wonder at all.
For shame Pink!