Infant Maniwhatso - Pearls

[RandomTrivia]

This reminds me of a book I found while searching on Amazon Kindle deals. (I've tried to find it again to reference it, but to no avail.) This woman recounts childhood memories of living with an abusive mother. Her mother would serve her overcooked oatmeal without sugar for breakfast. When she refused to eat it, her mother would save it for her to eat for dinner that night. If she talked back to her mother, she would be punished by having to brush her teeth with Comet. It honestly breaks my heart to no end to think of kids growing up with not only a parent who doesn't provide love and security, but one who so painfully hurts them.

That sounds kind of like Dave Pelzer's "A Boy Called It" but it's not written by a woman. Where do these people come up with the twisted punishments? The Pelzer book was like a giant sadistic trainwreck that I couldn't stop reading, no matter how skin-crawlingly bizarre it got.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Not only are the methods appalling, but the goal of automatic obedience is anything but moral.

I'm going to assume that SOTDRT curriculum does not include "Eichmann in Jerusalem" or anything about the Milgram experiment.

[Vex]

My 'oatmeal' was my morning Weetbix. Weetbix are basically 'biscuits' of flaked wheat that you have with milk. I never had anything to make them nicer like sugar or bananas, even though I almost certainly could have choked them down if I'd had either of them. Mum would get me up early to eat them because I'd be there for an hour or more, struggling with it. It often made me late for school and sometimes mum threatened to send me to school without pajamas.

To be fair, I barely ate anything in terms of quantity and I was very fussy. We now know this was because as a baby I had severe reflux and would vomit up almost everything, so I have a very unpleasant relationship with food and I was afraid to try new things. I'm a lot braver now, I'll almost always try things, but I still have strong dislikes - and you'd better believe Weetbix is one of them.

I never understood why it was so important. She didn't force me to eat anything else I truly hated.

[SeaSaltCaramel]

That sounds kind of like Dave Pelzer's "A Boy Called It" but it's not written by a woman. Where do these people come up with the twisted punishments? The Pelzer book was like a giant sadistic trainwreck that I couldn't stop reading, no matter how skin-crawlingly bizarre it got.

Ok, so my nagging research instinct got the better of me, and I found the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Me-ebook/dp/B ... m_kstore_9

If you "click to look inside" you can read the part I did. It's so ironic the similarities between and mentally ill, abusive mother and parents who use Pearl techniques. One is blatantly illegal and worth jail time; the other insidiously claims to raise a child properly.

I also read the synopsis on the Dave Pelzer book and am in shock. His mom seems more sadistic than this other mother was...and that's saying a lot.

[Chasingthedog]

I really and truly cannot understand anyone who would look at 6 month old being a 6 month old and think that they are trying to manipulate you. They're interacting in the only ways they know how. Whining in the carseat--it's boring and lonely back here. Crying when I walk out of the room--I don't understand that you still exist when I can't see you and I want you to hold me, Whining to be picked up: I love you, please hold and comfort me. You're the only comfort I know.

Seriously. The thought of hitting my nearly-7 month old daughter for any of those things, or thinking that I need to break her will makes me physically ill.

[Guest Anonymous]

Even Satan will have a hard time thinking up enough bad things to do to the Pearls.

[BoomerLynn]

That was disturbing to read, and even more disturbing listening to the audio. Hearing that little girl reading those awful things was both creepy and heartbreaking. Everything about the Pearls sickens me. I will never understand how someone can proudly claim they train their children the same way the Amish train mules. These people are vile.