This child was FOUR years old! FOUR!
I am all in favor of mild corporal punishment when it is appropriate. A smack or two on the bottom, enough to get the point across that the behavior will not be tolerated — that I can get behind.
What I will never advocate or agree with is beating a small child to the point where they have blood-crusted welts on their back, legs, bottom, and even their genitals!
Adrian Peterson Indicted for Child Abuse (Getty Images)
So many people are jumping on board the support-Adrian train. Jumping on the “I got spanked when I was a kid…” and “this is the problem with today’s kids…” bandwagon.
I agree, today’s kids are not disciplined enough. But this wasn’t a pre-teen who was dabbling in gangs that needed a really strong hand to try to keep him out of a life of danger. This was a preschooler whose crime was to push another small child while playing video games. And for his crime, he was beaten with a tree branch “10-15 times”, enough to draw blood. He had leaves stuffed in his mouth so he couldn’t scream.
Does that sound like loving, caring discipline to you? Adrian Peterson claims that he just disciplines like he was when he was a child. I will venture to assert that if he was beaten to this extent when he was a small child, then that is not something he should be mimicking today.
Four years old! Four!
There is nothing…I repeat, nothing … that a four-year-old could do that would warrant this type of a beating. In fact, one source I read said that this child had at least three such punishments in the week (the WEEK) that he was visiting his dad. I cannot fathom what a four-year-old could do that would warrant such a reaction from a “loving” father. I would say that if you’re having to apply that kind of punishment to a kid that young that often, then you probably need to rethink your parenting techniques. Something else is going on. The boy calls him “Daddy Peterson”…what?? What kind of father-son relationship is that?
It is absolutely sickening how many THOUSANDS of comments have been in favor of Adrian Peterson beating this small child. Thousands! Why? Because they were beaten too? Because they’re not bothering to read the details of the police report and look at the photos of that little boy’s legs, and they’re just assuming it was deserved, or the kid was older, or…whatever. But it’s just scary to see how many people just would love to beat their children…if they could get away with it.
*deep breath*
Please…please, America. Do not get so caught up in your “hero”. Adrian Peterson is pretty much Fantasy Football Draft Pick #1 in every league. Do I think that this has something to do with a lot of these comments? Oh yeah, I sure do. Do I think that his status as one of the #1 players in the NFL has anything to do with how quickly people are jumping to approve of his child abuse? Oh yeah, I sure do!
Look at the pictures here. Look at that little boy’s legs and decide for yourself if that is a reasonable amount of discipline for simply pushing another kid in a video game squabble.
This man brutalized his four-year-old son in the name of “loving discipline” and people are actually agreeing with him! The public was very quick to jump all over Ray Rice for domestic violence against his fiancee, but they’re defending a man who beat his preschooler until he bled?
Where’s the line between acceptable corporal punishment and child abuse? It might be grey to some people, but it should never, EVER be red with blood!