Childhood is the place where communication dies; emotional expression is our first form of connection with others. If it is squelched or mitigated in our youth, it can cause all types of problems. When parents say hurtful things like "Stop crying, or I will give you something to cry about," it harms the emotional literacy of the child and causes long term dysfunction.
"If anything runs contrariwise to compassion, it is the maltreatment of children.
In the soft perspective, children are seen as human. They are not defined as wretched little things. They possess the same dignity as everyone.
Anarchists are correct when they say children have not received true social acceptance. For most of history, children have been seen as unimportant others. It has been acceptable to harm them—and even brutalize them—so long as this brutality falls within the scope of customary standards.
For instance, hitting and emotional abuse toward children has been a culturally sacred ritual, which has not been fully criticized until the modern age. But even this criticism has not taken its final shape until the rise of compassionate anarchism.
These anarchists do not only recognize that spanking and hitting children is bad, but that emotionally tormenting children and preventing them from sharing their feelings can be damaging.
That is why anarchists educate people on what type of harm emotional maltreatment can cause, and hope to show parents that repressing children's inner worlds can cause psychological disruptions that lead to many problems. But this emotional abuse is obviously compounded by physical abuse such as spanking.
Children are precious and beautiful. And it's my hope that we can all respect and appreciate them with utmost compassion. If anyone deserves it, it is the children.
May they retain their innocence and love."
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Thank your for sharing this Sterlin, hope your planning on coming this year to Acapulco; and maybe even considering doing some type of event during the fork of Anarcapulco
Yeah, I believe your opinions are valid. I have three kids. In my early experience as a dad, parenting was a lot harder than I expected! @wildfamily and I spent an entire summer touring the U.S. and interviewing 40 families about life with kids, in order to better understand how other people manage the hard parts of parenting, etc. We produced a documentary feature film on this subject, called Wild Family. One of our key takeaways is that we (parents) are both teachers and students. Our kids are also our teachers and students. They are mirrors for us, allowing us to see where we're at emotionally, as we grow together, witnessing each other. I believe that the next level of conscious parenting agrees that our kids are our equals, each with our own soul contracts and our own lessons to learn, and our own karma. And this view of equality grants each person the potential of self-mastery. There is freedom in this, for kids and parents alike. As you say, when the parent stifle's a child's willpower to the extreme, there's a possibility that the child's patterning of powerlessness will make them subservient as they grow older, and this is where I think spanking can be detrimental (just my person thinking, not a judgment of any kind). An ideal father figure is tender. An ideal mother figure is embracing of a child exactly as is. These are my beliefs and they're echoed through many people's voices in the aforementioned film.
Yes. And at the same time, we parents have to forgive ourselves (and our children) for the natural initiations we experience as a family unit, where we learn who we are, explore space, define boundaries, etc. Spanking is one of the patterns passed down through many, many generations, and to me it feels almost instinctual (not to say that it’s right or wrong). There are no established rules, or roadmaps in parenting. This is a journey that requires inner guidance. It’s a Higher learning. You mention the idea of mirroring, and yes, this is a real gift I see in family life: Seeing the oneness of one’s “self” in others, and sharing the pains, the joys… all the while learning how to love each other, as we learn how to love ourselves.
Aho! And the family unit is a microcosm of our “Greater Family,” which is all of us. Harmony and Peace are sure to occur in the world when there is an honoring of others as our relations. We saw slivers of this in the Standing Rock Movement. Unfortunately, many of our family members were not quite ready to look in the mirror.
I really salute your thinking children is the main part in our family and we should always respect them so they will also respect you. In case of mine I'm youngest in my family. So, obviously my family members treated as a child. Thanx for sharing.....
Very powerful! Children are our hope! How can we be so cruel and unthinking????
@sterlinluxan thanks for sharing very informative post have a good day ahead thankyou
Teachers also ill treat students using harsh words insulting them in the class. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, this is so true...
Thanks for this share. I would add spending quality time with your children lets them know you love them and they are valuable.
Children are little humans and I could not agree with you more. I have been emotionally harmed throughout my entire upbringing. I can't stop wondering how much more different I would be if that had never happened to me. Thank you for writing about this, it is super important!