I was beaten as a kid, and beyond the emotional scars it has left me struggling in raising my own children because that was really the only corrective tool I learned. I refuse however to perpetuate the cycle of violence. It dies with me.
Thank you for sharing this; I can tell it's going to stick with me.
Today isthe first Thanksgiving in my house with my new son and there's nothing I want more than to be damn sure I break the cycle that was handed down to me.
Man this is powerful. I am so fortunate to have parents who would never even consider this - but for a few years my teachers would hit us and berate us. That ruined years of education for me as i never trusted teachers or felt safe. I can’t imagine the damage dealt by parents who hit.
oh, it killed me when I first read it, and it absolutely had an effect on me when I re-read it last night. And just last week my sister and I were asking each other if maybe we’d have been different people, happy people, if we hadn’t , you know
I've read a lot of Sedaris. He tries to gloss over it with aloofness and claims to be "blending fact with fiction" but it's fairly clear he had profoundly abusive parents.
that's something. my kids did not run around restaurants unfettered and amazingly, I didn't need to beat them. It's interesting how people like this frame it as 'if you don't beat your kids, something is wrong with you'
