Role Of Perfect Parenting In Adrian Peterson's Freakonomics

In the book Freakonomics, there are many issues that bring about discussion. While pondering on a topic that I felt I could best discuss, I looked back at chapter five in the book and decided to go with “What Makes a Parent Perfect?” Although this seems to be an easily answered question, many people have different insights on what really defines perfect parenting. When looking at a topic in the news that focuses on parenting, my attention was quickly directed to the Adrian Peterson case. Throughout my paper I will be discussing the chapter’s insights on perfect parenting, my view of perfect parenting, and Peterson’s feelings on perfect parenting. To begin, in chapter five, the author argues that conventional wisdom on parenting seems to shift …show more content…
Football player, Adrian Peterson was recently accused and charged for child abuse. Peterson’s four year old son was beat as punishment for pushing another kid off of a motorcycle video game. Peterson grabbed a branch, stripped away the leaves, and beat the child repeatedly. He later texted his son’s mother and told her that she would be mad about his legs. The article explained that Peterson felt that he had did nothing wrong but wanted his son’s to know that he did not play when it came to acting right. Peterson’s attorney claimed that the football player was a great loving father who would never do anything to hurt his son. After experiencing his two year old son being beaten to death by another woman’s boyfriend, one would think that Peterson would take this into consideration when thinking about scarring his four year old son for life. In my opinion, Peterson does not display the attributes of a perfect parent. Although he felt that pulling down his son’s pants and beating him to death was okay, I feel that it was considered child abuse. If Peterson would have disciplined his child in the first place he would have never been given a reason to beat him so, in that case I feel that Peterson as a father needs to work on his disciplinary methods. As a child, I must say that I did get spankings but, not to the extent where bruises were left or I was bleeding. My mom never wanted to hurt me; she just wanted to teach me right from wrong. Sometimes, my mom would do things such as take my television time away for a couple of hours or a day to discipline me or even my cell phone when I got a little bit older. It’s not all about how you discipline your child but whether they know what to do and what not to do. Even though there’s no one perfect parent on earth, child abuse is never the answer to solving problems. Every parent tends to have their own opinion about how to