Recently, my friends were talking about discipling kids. During that conversation, I mentioned that when I was younger, my father would discipline my siblings and me by hitting us. One of my friends decided that she was angry and traumatized on my behalf, and she says she won’t let it go unless confront my father the way she wants me to. In fact, my siblings and I have already had this conversation with my father and quite frankly, we were demons, and spanking was one of the only ways we learned consequences. We did insane things: I remember once we thought it was a good idea to jump on a glass coffee table, even though we had done that once before and my brother fell through it and cut up his legs.
I have a good relationship with my father, as do my siblings, and now we actually talk about things. Our dad apologized and said he thought he was too scary at times and we accepted and acknowledged there were times we willfully tried to get a rise out of him.
How do I get my friend to drop this? Her childhood may have been painful for her, but I have made peace with mine. I have given her several chances to back off; do I owe it one more conversation or should I cut her off? Usually we are great, supportive friends.
--Over the Past
