doherty@eosp1.UUCP (Suzanne Doherty) (08/24/84)
Kenneth, I agree with what you have said in your previous nutshell to net.kids. When a parent feels as if he/she is threatened by his/her own children this is often a preempt to trouble. When and if this does occur the children do pick up on such fears and more often then not, they try their hand at the infamous "power play" or more commonly refered to as the "generation gap" struggle between parent and child; The victor being the one who has gained some sort of control over the other, hence resulting in some sort freedom to do and say what one pleases regardless of the emotional or physical effects imposed on those involved. Also, a superficial increase in self-esteem can be detected. By superficial it is meant that the youngster or the parent does not gain a healthy ( meaning positive ) boost to the ego. This could be expanded but in effort to keep this response as brief as possible, I'll avoid doing so. The child who presumably picks up on such a parental disorder will likely experiment. But, in reference to the article "Strong Parent" not in any way was it infered that the theme centered on "Strong" meaning physical. The theme engulfed the parents positive inward stengths and a developed self. It was not an article that spoke of a parent in an uncontrollable rage who hit their child, but in following with the theme, it stated a parent not afraid to elicit strength emotional strength. Nor did the writing state that this was advisable for all occurences of a child telling the parent to "shut up". In keeping with the theme of the article "Strong Parent", your views stated in your previous writing somewhat parallel those of myself. Suzanne Doherty allegra!princeton!eosp1!doherty