How To Beat Babies

[Guest Anonymous]

It doesn't matter if the Pearls merely swat their children. Michael Pearl wrote a book that instructs parents to beat their children without mercy. He uses that exact phrase - no mercy. No distinction is given between actual misbehavior and accidents or childish limitations. No distinction is given for children with developmental delays or intellectual limitations. All transgressions from perfect behavior should be subject to physical discipline without mercy.

He advises in the book to beat children with plumbing line. I have read mothers boast of having plumbing line in their purses because it is so portable that they can now carry the means by which they terrorize their children from one place to the next and no one is any the wiser because it is very convenient to beat a kid in a car with plumbing line. Very ergonomic.

Lydia Shatz is dead because this book exists. Her mother beat her with plumbing line because she, an adoptee from Africa, could not pronounce American words to her American mother's satisfaction. Her mother was convinced that any mistake her little girl made was rebellion against God because that is what Pearl said. She believed she needed to beat her child without mercy because that is what Pearl said she needed to do. So she beat the little girl until she died. Her sister is in kidney failure because of the beatings.

The kidney failure is due to nephrons being clogged with flesh and muscle matter. You know what happens when you beat a piece of meat to tenderize it? That's what happens to kids whose parents adopt the TTUaC method of beating. They are hit without mercy until their internal flesh and muscle breaks down, enters their blood stream and then clogs up their kidneys. I will be very surprised if there is not a rash of fundie kids going into kidney failure as adults because of all the beatings they received as children.

Pearl could have just swatted his kids, which I doubt since he brags about even beating his dogs with plumbing line. It doesn't matter if he gave them a pat on the behind and they smiled minutes later. His book is sold to people who genuinely think they need to beat their children without mercy for any error in order to save them for God and those people are indeed beating their children.

I hope I do not sound harsh here. I don't mean to lecture you. But the physical and psychological impact of this wicked book cannot be diminished by hopeful second-guessing or equivocation. This is one of those instances wherein no decent person should even try to make excuses, even though it is in our natures as decent human beings to try to find reason in madness.

No no, I meant it in the other direction- that they beat the living shit out of their kids for the slightest infraction. (when I typed my initial response, I was trying to nurse one kid down for a nap and the other (my niece ) was badgering me with incessant questions about "why? why? why? " when I'd say "baby Roland needs to sleep right now please sit down and read a book) For the record, neither of them were beaten with plumbing line... :o

And the borders I used to work at had a copy of it, I remember being "WTF is this" when I worked there (Religion, self help, and metaphysics were my "sections" i was in charge of shelving books in and keeping neat). I took a peek in it and was horrified by what I read. I remember him advocating that since switches are no longer "in vogue" and that they leave marks, the plumbing line. I believe I "accidentally" tore the cover and put it with the damaged books. So that we didn't have a copy for a while...

[Oddeverything]

I wonder if it is possible to send a copy of the materials quoted by Debrand to the prosecutors in the Schatz case? It just makes me sick to my stomach to think of these kids, and of parents defying their best instinct to protect in order to become terror and humiliation-inflicting torturers of their defenceless babies.

That Elizabeth Shatz followed the teachings of Michael Pearl is well-known. Both parents have pled guilty in a plea agreement. It's all over but the shouting.

[Oddeverything]

No no, I meant it in the other direction- that they beat the living shit out of their kids for the slightest infraction. (when I typed my initial response, I was trying to nurse one kid down for a nap and the other (my niece ) was badgering me with incessant questions about "why? why? why? " when I'd say "baby Roland needs to sleep right now please sit down and read a book) For the record, neither of them were beaten with plumbing line... :o

And the borders I used to work at had a copy of it, I remember being "WTF is this" when I worked there (Religion, self help, and metaphysics were my "sections" i was in charge of shelving books in and keeping neat). I took a peek in it and was horrified by what I read. I remember him advocating that since switches are no longer "in vogue" and that they leave marks, the plumbing line. I believe I "accidentally" tore the cover and put it with the damaged books. So that we didn't have a copy for a while...

Ugh, after you explain this I can see what you are saying - that the Pearls likely did even worse to their kids than they represent in the book. I leapt to the wrong conclusion because in the course of reading about the accursed Pearls, I have seen otherwise sane and nice people engaging in attempts to minimize it. Surely the Schatz family must have been nuts. Surely the Pearls aren't that bad. Surely it was all theory that went terribly wrong in practice. I think when confronted with human evil this profound it's a natural response to simply not want to believe.

[Cassandra]

I think that its important to remind newcomers how vile that the Pearls' methods are. THere is also the chance that the name of this site will come up when someone googles the Pearls and it will warn them away from the couple's abusive methods.

Okay, so if the child is doing something wrong and stops when you tell them to, or at least disengages in that activity for some reason or another you punish them!?

So the child learns to expect to be hit no matter what? :x

That whole "Engage his mind in the former activity" thing is bullshit. Its been disproven in Dog-training so I sure as hell don't think it works with babies. I cannot even begin to imagine that from the child's perspective. First mom yells at you not to touch something, and then when you stop touching it she forces your hand back onto the object and then beats you. That doesn't engage the mind in former behavior, it just confuses the hell out of an innocent kid who doesn't understand that certain objects are dangerous yet. Essentially from the kid's perspective mom is forcing him to commit bad behavior and then punishing him for it.

I've had bosses who had a similar mentality as in yell (or in this case beat) first, ask questions later. They make for terrible people.

Do they punish the first time a child does something wrong even if it hasn't been explicitly listed as a negative action?

[Antigone]

Shudder. I don't want to touch this book with a 10 foot pole but just might search out a copy from the local value village/goodwill and slip it into one of Sev's psych books from his office. If we lived near the pearls I'd pretty much make sure that they were not allowed within 10 feet of Sevy and any of her friends, or even her school. I probably sound crazy and off my rocker tho ;)

now off to drink a cup of tea to settle my tummy, all upset after reading about those horrible people and those poor, poor children :(

[Katiebug]

Our baby is almost a year old and the thought of purposely hurting her makes me feel sick to my stomach. She thinks the word "no" is either funny or she doesn't pay much attention, but that's why we say no and redirect - developmentally speaking, redirection is about the only thing that works. We got a handout from our pediatrician at one of her well-baby visits that is clearly against corporal punishment (which I think is the official AAP position). It said something to the effect of how spanking or hitting your baby will be very confusing and upsetting, because she can't comprehend why mom or dad - the person she loves more than anyone - is hurting her. Dude, just reading that makes me want to cry.

These Pearl people should be in jail. A plumbing supply line? On a baby? That's just horrifying.

[Guest Anonymous]

Ugh, after you explain this I can see what you are saying - that the Pearls likely did even worse to their kids than they represent in the book. I leapt to the wrong conclusion because in the course of reading about the accursed Pearls, I have seen otherwise sane and nice people engaging in attempts to minimize it. Surely the Schatz family must have been nuts. Surely the Pearls aren't that bad. Surely it was all theory that went terribly wrong in practice. I think when confronted with human evil this profound it's a natural response to simply not want to believe.

I'm sure they were doing worse. I mean how many of us speculate that the Duggars use corporal punishment on their kids off camera? And when they're on camera, if you don't know what you're looking for, they look like one big happy wacky family.

Things often get toned down so they're more palatable for the public.

I just don't get this fundy mindset of literally beating the spirit out of your kids. My son would probably be hurt on a daily basis as he's a very stubborn, strong willed adventurous toddler. I'm gonna go hug him and cuddle him now to try and feel less sick about this whole thing.

*edited for a grammar fail

[emmiedahl]

I seriously doubt that this would work for really strong-willed children anyway. My nine month old will pull himself up to the coffee table, fall, and get right back up while he's crying. Repeat until I come and move him, and at the next opportunity he crawls back to the table. Some kids just don't quit. The pain of falling, even the times that he has hit the table going down, is not enough to keep him away the table. That is not the way babies work. His little brain is not capable of cause and effect yet. Why would it work differently if I were the one inflicting the pain? I have two other children like this; the only way to discipline a strong willed child is to get them on your side.

(In my experience, the strong willed children grow up to be the most caring, quirky, tenacious people. You just need to get them through the first fifteen years or so.)

[AnnoDomini]

I too am in tears. I've been reading about the Pearls ever since I started lurking at the old FJ and it befuddles me every time why these people aren't in jail.

How would the Pearls train my child with their methods?? He's 16, but cognitively he's 6-7. He understands happy, sad, mad, hungry, hot, cold, sleepy, but cannot understand complex emotions like frustrated, overwealmed, overstimulated, or stressed, so he sometimes acts out for these reasons. Would the Pearls tell me to "train" him until he complies? I cannot even fathom it. What would the Pearls do with an autistic child? a downs child? a hearing or sight impared child? I spend alot of time with my son and his friends at his school (charter school for children with physical/mental/emotional disabilities) and I cannot imagine anyone hurting any of them for not "complying" or "behaving". I cannot fathom anyone hurting any child for any reason.

UGH. I'm so thankful that my mother didn't get into TTUaC methods much. I think she discovered it shortly after she went into her dark depression period and barely functioned as a person, much less a mother. I read it and took what I wanted from it and rejected the disturbing stuff (which was a lot of it).

One of my sisters has Downs. I don't want the Pearls anywhere near her.

[demgirl]

Lydia Shatz is dead because this book exists. Her mother beat her with plumbing line because she, an adoptee from Africa, could not pronounce American words to her American mother's satisfaction. Her mother was convinced that any mistake her little girl made was rebellion against God because that is what Pearl said. She believed she needed to beat her child without mercy because that is what Pearl said she needed to do. So she beat the little girl until she died. Her sister is in kidney failure because of the beatings.

If I were the prosecutor on that case, I would have done anything I could to find a way to charge the Pearls. They may not have held that plumbing line, but they bare a significant amount of the responsibility for this tragedy.

[ladypuglover]

Our baby is almost a year old and the thought of purposely hurting her makes me feel sick to my stomach. She thinks the word "no" is either funny or she doesn't pay much attention, but that's why we say no and redirect - developmentally speaking, redirection is about the only thing that works. We got a handout from our pediatrician at one of her well-baby visits that is clearly against corporal punishment (which I think is the official AAP position). It said something to the effect of how spanking or hitting your baby will be very confusing and upsetting, because she can't comprehend why mom or dad - the person she loves more than anyone - is hurting her. Dude, just reading that makes me want to cry.

These Pearl people should be in jail. A plumbing supply line? On a baby? That's just horrifying.

My second son was very hurt if someone told him No! and gave him a stern look. He would cry like you just beat him with plumbing line and it would break my heart. Claping my hands and giving a soft no would end up with his chin crinkling up and tears in his eyes, I can't begin to think what might have happened if we had hit him. He also learned from the no's and neve repeated the naughty behavior... would do new ones but not repeats. ;) This is also the kid who only threw one single temper tantrum his entire life at the ripe age of four, so not beating him worked better for us.

My babies were not allowed to cry, at the first whimper we would jump to figure out what the baby needed and make it right. I thought if my babies were crying that I was somehow letting them down and needed to fix the problem asap. I had very happy babies who got older that always knew/know that mom and dad are always there for them. All with out ever hitting them with plumbing line. :snooty:

[Mommy22alyns]

Makes me want to vomit every time I read it. Just chilling. :(

[starfish]

I wish the prosecutors had charged the Pearls with something. They could have, at least, subpoened them to the Grand Jury. Make them testify a couple of days, wait out in the hall for several days, that kind of thing.

[Rosa]

They got Warren Jeffs on "counseling" Elissa Walls, but he had a very specific position & physical force to back up his commands, so it's not the same. Do the Pearls actually have a church or do they just "minister" via selling shit?

[hoipolloi]

They got Warren Jeffs on "counseling" Elissa Walls, but he had a very specific position & physical force to back up his commands, so it's not the same. Do the Pearls actually have a church or do they just "minister" via selling shit?

The Pearls have their own church: the Church at Cane Creek. According to a reporter who visited it several years ago, the congregation numbered a few dozen, most of them related by blood or marriage to Mike & Debi. The reporter visited them as a follow-up to the murder of 4-year old Sean Paddock, killed by his adoptive mother who followed the Pearls' disgusting methods (http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/SeanPaddock.html).

In an update, it looks like Sean's adoptive father was finally charged, tried & convicted for his role in allowing the abuse to go on in that house for years before the boy's death (http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/20/ ... th-at.html):

"Johnny Paddock was never charged in Sean's death on the family's farm near Smithfield in 2006. But throughout the murder trial of his ex-wife Lynn, relatives and others questioned why Johnny Paddock wasn't held accountable for the child abuse in his home, which went on for years before Sean was killed. Lynn Paddock was convicted of first-degree murder in 2008 and will spend the rest of her life in prison....As in the 2008 murder trial, much of the case centered on testimony from the Paddocks' other children, several of whom are now adults. Others still live with Johnny Paddock. They said Lynn Paddock often beat them with the plastic plumbing pipes she kept in each room of the farmhouse. They said their mother also made them eat their own feces and exercise for hours and taped their mouths shut." [Edited to say emphasis added]

[Sola]

Weed Eater cord; that's plastic strimmer wire yes?

So basically they not only advocate beating a child, they also advocate WHIPPING a baby? Yep, whipping. Because that is the effect that strimmer wire will achieve.

Sick bastards.