Pearls Parenting Advice

[Loveday]

This is just appalling. :o

I call bullshit on a four month old climbing stairs, but that still means that a baby a few months older was being struck with a willow switch for doing something that ALL babies are eventually supposed to learn to do! And the idea of striking a four month old baby in the first place (ANY baby, toddler, child, etc, but a FOUR month old???)...these people are just monsters. :evil:

[ILoveJellybeans]

Sooooooo there's a 9 year old who is so used to being abused that she has no idea why someone is not beating their 7 month old for crying, a mother who pulls the hair of her newborns for biting, and a child who is afraid of a piece of plumbing line at the age of four months old as she knows it causes pain. Her parents could have instead bought a gate to put on the stairs so she couldnt have got up there, but I think fundies are immune to logic, I cringe watching the littlest Duggar kids playing on the stairs, cant it be easier to put up a baby gate? Its not like everyone else who uses them til the kid is old enough not to fall has problems with the kids being unsafe on the stairs. Its really telling that one of her grown up kids is poor and married to a deadbeat loser. I wonder what the others are up to and whether any of them became doctors or became rich through creating their own businesses.

The bit about the kids pretending to beat their dolls and laughing about it doesnt prove that what theyre doing is right and that the kids are okay with being hit. Ive heard that some kids who are abused may even act out sex scenes with their dolls or pretend to molest them, in exactly the same way their children are acting out beating their dolls. They dont see it as something wrong, they see it as a part of life, just like some kids act out scenes from their favourite movies, look after their baby dolls like they see their parents doing, pretend to do household chores or pretend to be police officers or doctors.

[Jana814]

Holy fuck nuggets. These people are the craziest of the crazies. As someone who is studying psychology, I am appalled by this shit. The pulling hair of babies thing? WHO thinks of that? Those poor children!!!!

I agree Holy Fuck nuggets!! I have hudge issue that they would advocate something like this. I am even more bothered that a 9 and 11 year old told the mother to hit her baby. How wrong, why are not Pearls not in jail for doing this.

[acheronbeach]

There is, and I wish to God I could find it.

No offence, but none of the Pearl children are exactly Rhodes scholars.

Their daughters are SAHM's married to general labourers (or in Gabe Anast's case, an indolent internet panhandler), and their sons are construction workers. I see nothing wrong with being a labourer, but equally, I don't think it's a high paying, high powered job that demonstrates how great TTUAC works.

[RosyDaisy]

Switching a baby! OMFG WTH??? Mike and Debi Pearl you are spawns of Satan, and there's a very, very special place in Hell for people like you!

[August]

Wow. I can't imagine the amount of fear these people exist under.

I've spent the last few days reading the blog of a quiverful fundy ( Specis Christianum quiverius var adoptario ) and she would post a rant at least once a month about how the devil was actively trying to stop their adoption by breaking their coffee machine, or overflowing the bath. They are utterly utterly paranoid.

The Pearls are the most evil, but the relatively common fundy christian parenting author, Ezzo, advocates slapping a six month old for throwing food. It's not like they're isolated in their extremes.

Now, please excuse me, but I'm off to found a parenting advice empire based on the values espoused by 80's TV families. Minus Kirk. Well, minus the Cameron, with the Captain.

[Ramona]

why are the Pearls not in jail for doing this.

I've wondered that myself ~ and I can only assume that the laws where they live allow for these kinds of "physical punishments" ??

They'd have their children taken from them here - spanking is still allowed (unfortunately) but there are VERY strict guidelines. You can only spank children between 2-12 years old, only with an open hand, and the force used must be "reasonable" ... you can NOT use any type of implement (no spoons, belts, switches, or anything else!) and you can NOT slap faces or pull hair or whatever!

[2xx1xy1JD]

Sooooooo there's a 9 year old who is so used to being abused that she has no idea why someone is not beating their 7 month old for crying, a mother who pulls the hair of her newborns for biting, and a child who is afraid of a piece of plumbing line at the age of four months old as she knows it causes pain. Her parents could have instead bought a gate to put on the stairs so she couldnt have got up there, but I think fundies are immune to logic, I cringe watching the littlest Duggar kids playing on the stairs, cant it be easier to put up a baby gate? Its not like everyone else who uses them til the kid is old enough not to fall has problems with the kids being unsafe on the stairs. Its really telling that one of her grown up kids is poor and married to a deadbeat loser. I wonder what the others are up to and whether any of them became doctors or became rich through creating their own businesses.

The bit about the kids pretending to beat their dolls and laughing about it doesnt prove that what theyre doing is right and that the kids are okay with being hit. Ive heard that some kids who are abused may even act out sex scenes with their dolls or pretend to molest them, in exactly the same way their children are acting out beating their dolls. They dont see it as something wrong, they see it as a part of life, just like some kids act out scenes from their favourite movies, look after their baby dolls like they see their parents doing, pretend to do household chores or pretend to be police officers or doctors.

Absolutely.

Young children don't learn primarily by being specifically taught lessons - they learn primarily through example and repetition.

Whatever "lesson" the physical discipline is intended to teach will soon be forgotten, and in many cases (such as with the stairs), it wasn't necessary to teach it at all because it is simply a phase of development that will pass.

The primary, lasting lesson of such physical discipline is that the children will grow up to see it as a normal, expected part of child-rearing. They will automatically see it as necessary, regardless of what a child does, and they will lack the tools to enforce discipline without physical punishment.

[SisiL78]

Absolutely.

Young children don't learn primarily by being specifically taught lessons - they learn primarily through example and repetition.

Whatever "lesson" the physical discipline is intended to teach will soon be forgotten, and in many cases (such as with the stairs), it wasn't necessary to teach it at all because it is simply a phase of development that will pass.

The primary, lasting lesson of such physical discipline is that the children will grow up to see it as a normal, expected part of child-rearing. They will automatically see it as necessary, regardless of what a child does, and they will lack the tools to enforce discipline without physical punishment.

And those children will grow up desensitized to the abuse whether it be physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.... and once they have the power to act out those violent acts on something other than a doll they will do just that whether it be an animal, a peer, or another child. That's the scariest part. They are raising people who will probably be even more violent than they are.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Ive always wondered how a kid who is mostly punished by being hit, ever learns not to hit other children who are annoying them.

[sparkles]

Ive always wondered how a kid who is mostly punished by being hit, ever learns not to hit other children who are annoying them.

I picture a parent beating on the child with a switch while intoning "This will teach you to not hit another child!" in a syrupy sweet voice. The mixed messages are mind boggling.

[moodygirl86]

Oh it's very simple, kids! No need to think about it or intellectualise, just do as I say not as I do. Then I assure you everything will be fine. *sarcasm*

[EyeQueue]

Switching a baby! OMFG WTH??? Mike and Debi Pearl you are spawns of Satan, and there's a very, very special place in Hell for people like you!

But you have to understand that switching the kid was the only thing she could possibly do to effectively deal with such a discipline problem with a 7 month old. The little brute had, after all, "called down damnation" on the whole place and was just seconds away from instigating a riot. Those poor parents!

/sarcasm