my father and stepmother believe in spanking and have been heavily "disciplining" my 11yo adopted sister. i can hardly talk with them about it because my hands shake, my heart pounds, and i feel as if any moment i will vomit. how can i communicate with them effectively in this state?
i am, frankly, freaked out because she lives several states away. i cannot be there to help. she is not hit to the point of physical injury, but i know the emotional injury is there. my stepmother's response is basically "i was spanked. it worked. there was no harm."
my father and i can hardly talk about anything lately, not just because his views are so radically different from mine, but because he believes there is only one right view. he believes that his fundamentalist christian views give him the right to hit his daughter. it does not matter what i cite from the Bible about Jesus advocating love, forgiveness, nonviolence. his views also mean he has decided his daughter must be homeschooled because she is too much of a discipline problem. (anything i know of that happened at school was typical annoying 11yo things, like backbiting.)
top it off: my dad has been sober 20+ years. i had him in my life awhile, and he was nice. then he adopted these radical views and has been drifting away. i don't want to lose him, but right now i have no respect for him either. but i want my old dad back.
if you read all this, thank you for listening. feeling helpless stinks.
i am, frankly, freaked out because she lives several states away. i cannot be there to help. she is not hit to the point of physical injury, but i know the emotional injury is there. my stepmother's response is basically "i was spanked. it worked. there was no harm."
my father and i can hardly talk about anything lately, not just because his views are so radically different from mine, but because he believes there is only one right view. he believes that his fundamentalist christian views give him the right to hit his daughter. it does not matter what i cite from the Bible about Jesus advocating love, forgiveness, nonviolence. his views also mean he has decided his daughter must be homeschooled because she is too much of a discipline problem. (anything i know of that happened at school was typical annoying 11yo things, like backbiting.)
top it off: my dad has been sober 20+ years. i had him in my life awhile, and he was nice. then he adopted these radical views and has been drifting away. i don't want to lose him, but right now i have no respect for him either. but i want my old dad back.
if you read all this, thank you for listening. feeling helpless stinks.
