Earning The Temporary Hatred Of Your Children – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“This is hard for a lot of people to hear, but in my family, in my neighborhood, and in my community this is what part of what parenting meant. If you weren’t feeling the edge of the sword on your ass, then you were responding to the possibility of it. One thing I learned, while touring for my book, was that a lot of people consider this to be child abuse. It really was news to me and ultimately unthinkable. Almost everyone I’d ever known had come up the same way. My book editor would joke, while reading, the manuscript about his grandmother coming up from the South and making him go search for a switch. In Harlem.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
Truth be known, I’m trying to avoid it as much as possible. But push come to shove, I’m going to shove. Better me than the police who will not temper their assault nor will give or repeat verbal warnings prior.