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| Source: Attachment Parenting International Facebook Page |
"When I was about twenty years old, I met an old pastor's wife who told
me that when she was young and had her first child, she didn't believe
in striking children, although spanking kids with a switch pulled from a
tree was standard punishment at the time.
"But one day when her
son was four or five, he did something that she felt warranted a
spanking--the first in his life. And she told him he would have to go
outside and find a switch for her to hit him with. The boy was gone a
long time. And when he came back in, he was crying.
"He said to
her, 'Mama, I couldn't find a switch, but here's a rock you can throw at
me.' All of the sudden a mother understood how the situation felt from
the child's point of view: that if my mother wants to hurt me, it makes
no difference what she does it with; she might as well do it with a
stone.
"The mother took the boy onto her lap and they both cried.
Then she laid the rock on a shelf in the kitchen to remind herself
forever: never violence. Because violence begins in the nursery--one can
raise children into violence."
~From a peace prize acceptance speech given by Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking
Such a moving thing to read - found on Attachment Parenting International Facebook page! If you aren't a fan - you should be! So many great things for parents!
