Completely Biased

Facts of Life star Lisa Whelchel is back in the public eye with her controversial book

Creative Correction: Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline

Since when is a parenting book controversial? When gossip columnists and bloggers have picked up this website http://www.stoptherod.net/creativecorrection.html which accuses Whelchel of creating a child abuse handbook.  In fact, it takes particularly offensive parenting suggestions to inform the public and urge people to give the book bad reviews on the Amazon.com website.

Personally, I read the website, though I can’t say that I read the whole book.  The topic interests me because though there are a million parenting books on the market, there isn’t very much parenting going on in many American homes.  I used to believe that any parenting advice is good parenting advice as long as it’s encouraging parents to actually understand that they are responsible for every aspect of their child’s life until they are mature enough to be responsible for themselves.  I have since changed my mind.

Whelchel may suggest the occasional good parenting tip but her attitude towards her children borders if not crosses the line into emotional abuse.

A few key highlights from http://www.stoptherod.net/creativecorrection.html :

“As we walk along together shopping, I will suddenly give them silly commands that they must obey without arguing, such as ‘Walk backward,’ or ‘Stop and touch your toes,’ or ‘Give me a kiss.’ Occasionally I’ll throw in a real command, like ‘Don’t touch that,’ or ‘No, you may not have an Icee.’ My favorite curve, however, is to say no to some reasonable request, like ‘May I go to the bathroom?’” - As if power tripping over your children wasn’t a problem enough, she refuses to allow her children to go to the bathroom?! 

“The hearts of our children are ‘filled with schemes to do wrong’”

Whelchel calls children these names: ankle-biter, pests, and hyenas.

No matter how many pieces of good advice Whenchel may dole out between her gawd awful suggestions, nothing can redeem her from having a general negative attitude towards her children that rings clearly through even in the few pages of her book found the Amazon.com excerpts.  She clearly blames child bearing and rearing for the reason she never continued the career she started in show business.  She writes about them is an unaffectionate detachment most people would reserve for other people’s children.

According to safechild.org emotional child abuse is defined as:

“Emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that attacks a child’s emotional development and sense of self-worth. Emotional abuse includes excessive, aggressive or unreasonable demands that place expectations on a child beyond his or her capacity. Constant criticizing, belittling, insulting, rejecting and teasing are some of the forms these verbal attacks can take. Emotional abuse also includes failure to provide the psychological nurturing necessary for a child’s psychological growth and development — providing no love, support or guidance (National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, 1987). “

I think her book might just suggest doing that very thing.

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