I had this thought last night, while doing that blog jump thing I already mentioned. While I was visiting the blog reference below, I then jumped from her blog to another one. While on that one, I took a look at her recommended links. Among those links: A Trip to the Woodshed.
I groaned and thought, “Oh rats – one of those people.” And although I had been enjoying the blog up to that point, I immediately jumped back to the previous blog and picked a new link.
The Woodshed people preach the same authoritarian-at-all-costs parenting style that the Pearls do. For more on my thoughts on this, see the book review I did on To Train Up a Child. It’s waaayyy down the list, so just scroll down until you get to it.
What is it about me that makes proponents of these parenting philosophies so distasteful? I think it may have something to do with the arrogant tone they display. People I’ve known who love and recommend these books/websites, always come across as superior and their children are so good because of what they did to train them. That, combined with the abusive techniques (yes, I said abusive) suggested in their material is what makes me run screaming the other way.
I understand the Bible says we are to teach and train our children and I understand (or am trying to) what that entails. There is a significant difference, in my opinion, between spanking a child for disobedience and encouraging a child to do something dangerous so that that child learns not to do that dangerous thing again. I’m not making this up. These are real stories they have written about in their book. But there now, I’ve already reviewed it.
Okay, so back to my point. Last night wasn’t the first time I ran across someone who loves Pearl-type people. And it wasn’t the first time that encountering such a link thoroughly disgusted me and made me leave the blog.
I’m not sure why I can’t be indifferent here. To a certain extent I can read blogs run by folks with different political views, different working-mom philosophies, etc and it doesn’t produce such an extreme reaction in me. Sure I disagree, but they (usually) don’t make me out and out angry. Not so with these parenting links.
I don’t know what that says about me exactly, other than that maybe I’m a blog snob.
