Parenting Without a Manual
with Talyaa Liera
I'm Talyaa, the poster child for the concept that there's no one right way to be a parent. I went from stay-at-home attachment-parenting mom of four to being the non-custodial parent, working as a professional writer and channel-psychic. Let's talk about throwing away the parenting manual and exploding the myths and mystique of motherhood!
Check out my personal blog at Juxtapositioning.
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I was appalled to read the bloodthirsty go-get-’em comments in support of the dad who killed a dude who was trying to sexually abuse the dad’s four-year-old daughter. At a social gathering this weekend, a Texas father caught a casual acquaintance attempting to sexually abuse the dad’s four-year-old daughter, who had gone inside the house while everyone else was outside tending to horses. The dad reportedly punched the molester in the head repeatedly until he died. Local sheriff says he won’t press charges against the dad. And people are cheering.
Listen, the very thought of one of my children being molested or sexually abused by an adult makes me want to throw up. But the thought of punching someone in the head until they die? That makes me want to throw up more.
I don’t think this is a case of which is more important, a child’s life — sure to suck mightily for years and years after sexual abuse and probably require therapy, anger management classes, and emotional work to have a hope of healing — or the life of the kind of person who would attempt to sexually abuse a four-year-old, for gosh sakes (what kind of terrible person does this?), but it does. It does beg the question. So I will ask: whose life is worth more? And who gets to decide?
You could argue that the abuser opted out of being treated on par with other human beings when he stepped over the line — way over the line — and attempted to abuse a little girl.
You could argue that, and you’d be right.
But what about the dad?
Shouldn’t the dad have had, I don’t know, more self control? He KILLED a guy. As in, dead. The guy does not get to live his life.
I would do almost anything to protect my children. I suspect most of you would do the same. But kill a man? Unless the man seemed bent on killing ME or my family? Like I said, the thought makes me want to throw up. I can’t quite wrap my head over going from hey-get-that-guy-away-from-my-daughter-NOW to bashing in his head, repeatedly.
Can you? How far would you go to protect your kids?
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