Adrian Peterson - A New Rule of Thumb

 The rule of Thumb is explained in the introduction to the Boondock Saints seen below (minute 1:35) "In the early 1900's it was legal for a man to beat his wife as long as he used a stick no wider than his thumb."  Of course in the case with Adrian Peterson the beating was given to a four year old child and not his wife (note: Adrian admitted to the beating so it is not alleged but fact). 

It's not everyday that an alleged child abuse case gets public attention, of course its not everyday when a star football player gets arrested for alleged child abuse, although he admitted to using a switch on his son so its a case of discipline vs abuse.  To understand what happened, here is a qoute taken off ESPN1420.com in an article written by By Scott Prather "The beating allegedly resulted in numerous injuries to the child, including cuts and bruises to the child’s back, buttocks, ankles, legs and scrotum, along with defensive wounds to the child’s hands.”

To learn more and see pictures go to  http://www.tmz.com/2014/09/12/adrian-peterson-indicted-for-child-abuse/

With a 3 year old and a 6 year old of my own it drove me nuts to hear people come to Adrian's defense.  Let's hear the common excuses in favor of Adrian Peterson.

1.)  I am blogging under Midwestern Father and not Down South Father, so some would claim I don't understand the use of a switch to discipline.  It's true but where I'm from spankings and belts are used, I think we all understand physical discipline.

 2.) Children these days need more discipline.  Agreed, but this was not discipline, I hope the courts concur.

3.) Adrian's excuse, that's how he was disciplined when he was a child.  Right, so feel free to do every horrible thing that was done to you when you were a child to your own child.   

I agree with everything above if you follow my new rule of thumb.  Here is the scenario: Your child is playing at a friends house, in which your child and his friends get into some trouble (Speaking from experience, I was chased with a spatula by a friends mom, in all good fun of course, at least I don't think she was serious?).  If your child comes home from the neighbors with the following "numerous cuts and bruises to you child’s back, buttocks, ankles, legs and scrotum, along with defensive wounds to the child’s hands.”  What would you do? Would the excuses above be good enough for you not drag your neighbor out of his house and beat the living snot out of him. Please.  How can you claim discipline if it would put your neighbor in jail?  And don't tell me it's your child so it's okay, that's so 1900's.

Listen we can all agree there are better alternatives to disciplining your child.  I will touch on some of them in my next blog, "Bucking Bad Behavior".   But please if you want to use a belt or a switch follow my new rule of thumb, don't hit your child any harder then you would want someone else to hit your child.  If you feel its not hard enough to be affective, figure out some other method.