Donald Brashear and the Consequences of Abuse
By Rebeldad Brian Reid
As many of you know, I've peppered my posts with hockey references for years. So I read Mike Wise's piece on the front page of the Post on Saturday with considerable interest. Wise profiled Donald Brashear, the Caps' "enforcer" and the go-to guy when it comes to on-ice fighting in defense of his teammates. The story tracks Brashear's childhood, in which he goes from abusive father to abusive stepfather to foster care, and how he is now estranged from his mother and siblings.
There's not much to comment on; the piece stands on its own as a testament to the lifelong effects of abuse. It's well worth the read.
Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.
By Brian Reid |
May 4, 2009; 1:00 PM ET
| Category:
Discipline
,
Newsmakers
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Comments
Posted by: jezebel3 | May 4, 2009 1:14 PM
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Brain:
Your preaching to the choir.
Posted by: jezebel3 | May 4, 2009 1:28 PM
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Is there really anyone who is going to say abuse is good for kids?
Posted by: dennis5 | May 4, 2009 2:45 PM
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Is there really anyone who is going to say abuse is good for kids?
Posted by: dennis5 | May 4, 2009 2:45 PM | Report abuse
Yup.
Posted by: jezebel3 | May 4, 2009 3:42 PM
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"Is there really anyone who is going to say abuse is good for kids?"
Abusers just call it "discipline", which most parents generally accept as a good thing for kids. They justify beating, spanking, slapping (consequence for backtalk), biting their own kid (to teach their child not to bite), washing mouths out with soap, pulling kids along by their hair or ear, putting alcohol in the baby's bottle to get him to sleep, denying water to solve a bed wetting problem, putting hot pepper saus on the thumb of thumbsuckers, shoving a kid's face into their plate for slurping or shoveling their food, making children vomit by forcing them to eat their vegetables (or making teenagers eat cigarettes when they get caught smoking), locking kids out of the house for violating curfew, shaving their heads bald if they don't wash their hair, giving an unruly 6 year the elbow in the gut and pulling his feet out from under him to force them into a carseat as the temperature inside the car approaches a cool 130 degrees... The list goes on and on.
Abuse or effective parenting? You make the call.
Posted by: WhackyWeasel | May 5, 2009 9:09 AM
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Heartbreaking story.
Posted by: goodhome631 | May 5, 2009 10:40 AM
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Whacky, Are you implying that everything you listed you consider child abuse? Just asking.
Posted by: cheekymonkey | May 6, 2009 11:38 AM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
Brian,
Your preaching to the choir.