*sigh*
I try, hard, to stay away from “reality TV”. Because if I watch even a few minutes of it I find myself wanting to give into the desire to smash the TV and pound my head into a wall.
This means that I didn’t follow the Duggars either. I knew who they were, couldn’t avoid that, but I otherwise tried hard to not pay much attention to them or their TV show.
Which means that when the publicity storm hit that the eldest son was a rapist, I took a deep breath and ignored it. And when the fact came out that he’d been 14 at the time, and it was more like “force-able touching” than rape, and his parents hadn’t even gotten proper counseling for him or their daughters I did the same.
I wasn’t quite able to ignore their interview with whoever it was about the subject, and ended up reading the transcript of the interview. Got very frustrated at the religious stupidity of people (“well, all of our friends’ sons did it so we figured it wasn’t a big deal” gggrrrrrr, no, it means you and your community FAILED MASSIVELY at teaching the moral/religious concepts you’re so proud of!), and then took another deep breath and turned in a different direction. Adding my voice to the mess was pointless, I’m sure they’re ignoring the large majority of it anyway.
Two days ago THIS blog article popped up on my news feed. Since it wasn’t immediately obviously attached to the Duggars and I was bored I clicked through.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that thats a “thing” in the child rearing world. Nor that certain strict thought processes insist that if the child isn’t happy they’re shaming their parents.
Look, I think the average teenager today has both too much freedom and not enough. They lack learning in responsibility and consequences, and I dread the day that those kids are adults who are helping form the society for their kids.
I don’t have a problem with “place” training for dogs. Which is likely what the “blanket training” is based off of.
Nor do I have a problem with a properly placed and timed swat on the rear of a misbehaving child.
But…..there’s a point at which things are taken to far……and the Duggars and others who follow those methods have found that point.