“If you were the one on the sharp end of the things parents do to their children, would you be being taken seriously?”
– Sarah Fitz-Claridge
From the archives: Posted on 1st March, 1994
“Can I get some clarification about what you mean by ‘coercion’? I get the impression you mean something different than ‘force or threat of force’? If I’m giving my kid boundaries, limits, rules, and directions, am I coercing her? What about guiding her? Can I even talk to my kid without coercing her?? How do you determine what’s coercive and what’s not?”
Does this help clarify?:
“Can I get some clarification about what you mean by ‘coercion’? I get the impression you mean something different than ‘force or threat of force’? If I’m giving my wife boundaries, limits, rules, and directions, am I coercing her? What about guiding her? Can I even talk to my wife without coercing her?? How do you determine what’s coercive and what’s not?”
If you were the one on the sharp end of those things, would you be being taken seriously?
See also:
- Taking Children Seriously: a new view of children
- What is the psychological impact of not taking children seriously?
- If I am not allowed to coerce my child, surely I am being coerced myself?
Sarah Fitz-Claridge, 1994, ‘Clarification of what I mean by “coercion”’, https://takingchildrenseriously.com/clarification-of-what-i-mean-by-coercion/