OP, if your story is real and you’re not a fiction writer testing out a plot point, your internal barometer has been messed up by an abusive childhood. My husband roughhouses with our kid— serious play fighting, hitting, wrestling— and she NEVER gets hurt or ends up crying and he never ends up yelling at her. It’s not supposed to be a way of getting out pent up frustrations AT each other— at least not from the adult in the direction of the kid. |
+2 |
Oh jeez! Husband has never hit me or the children. |
Just roughhoused to the point that your DS gets hurt, starts crying and then gets yelled at? |
Yeah honestly we’ve fought about it. And he has toned it down a notch. Husband’s argument is that they beg him for it so it’s on them if they get hurt. It does drive me a little crazy. |
Then you’d better come up with a more plausible story for how you got the black eye if you plan to leave the house over the next week. |
Ok I kinda see your point. But roughhousing for fun when the kids are begging for it and physical abuse are two very different things. |
Fair enough. I brought it up as a possible explanation. Do you hit or spank as a form of punishment? |
Isadora Duncan, is that you?! |
Yeah, I’m less convinced that the husband is outright physically abusive and more concerned that a lot of over the line “roughhousing” happens— on the part of both the DH and the DS, who is “a handful” and “freakishly strong” and I’m guessing gets away with a lot of unacceptable hitting, kicking, etc. OP didn’t even immediately and physically stop him at the very moment he started strangling her. There’s definitely some combination of detachment, lack of boundaries and unacceptable physical acting out going on in this family, and the daughter is used to it. |
why would I make up THIS story to explain my black eye?? Like I really want to tell everyone that my 5yo choked me out and then beat me up while I was unconscious? |
That’s a bad argument. He’s the adult. My husband was a wrestler in HS and he learned he was “responsible for the safe return of [his] opponent to the mat.” An adult can roughhouse, but HE is still responsible for their safety (exceptions for when they try something wildly stupid and he’s not involved, like trying to jump on him from the second floor). |
Family fight club. |
No. |
?? No. |