My parents were utterly remarkable people. They had seven children and never struck one of us, at any time, for anything.
My father had a great gift for the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger speech. He could sit one of us down and explain in great and painful detail how we had let him down, and maybe we didn't appreciate his love enough to try and make him proud of us. Mam had a simpler, but equally effective tactic: 'How would you like your father to see what you've done?' I'd've sooner had a beating, I think.
A few years before the end of his life, I asked Da why he went to all the trouble to lecture us about misbehavior, when all my friends seemed to have gotten a dose of the strap, or a good, old fashioned thumping. I'll never forget what he said:
'I didn't want you kids to grow up like I did. If I beat you to correct your behavior, you'd have gotten the lesson that hurting someone was a way to correct a behavior of which you didn't approve. That, and any man who would hit a child is a contemptible coward.'
Greatest man I've ever known.
Boru
ps: Orogenicman can vouch for the fact that, if you let me, I'll go on and on about Da.
My father had a great gift for the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger speech. He could sit one of us down and explain in great and painful detail how we had let him down, and maybe we didn't appreciate his love enough to try and make him proud of us. Mam had a simpler, but equally effective tactic: 'How would you like your father to see what you've done?' I'd've sooner had a beating, I think.
A few years before the end of his life, I asked Da why he went to all the trouble to lecture us about misbehavior, when all my friends seemed to have gotten a dose of the strap, or a good, old fashioned thumping. I'll never forget what he said:
'I didn't want you kids to grow up like I did. If I beat you to correct your behavior, you'd have gotten the lesson that hurting someone was a way to correct a behavior of which you didn't approve. That, and any man who would hit a child is a contemptible coward.'
Greatest man I've ever known.
Boru
ps: Orogenicman can vouch for the fact that, if you let me, I'll go on and on about Da.
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
