When my kids started coming home sick after visits with their grandmother, Eileen, I brushed it off at first. But deep down, I felt uneasy. Nathan, my husband, always downplayed my concerns, saying, \u201cIt builds character.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Saturday, I dropped Alex and Ben at Eileen\u2019s house and headed home, only to realize I had forgotten their bag. When I returned, I heard Eileen through the open window, instructing the boys to do push-ups in the freezing cold, wearing nothing but their underwear. My heart sank. I rushed inside, demanding an explanation. Eileen, unbothered, claimed it was to \u201cbuild character,\u201d insisting I was too soft on them. \u201cThey need to be strong,\u201d she said. My boys\u2019 faces were red from the cold, and it broke my heart.<\/p>\n
On the way home, I asked what usually happened at Grandma\u2019s. Alex explained, \u201cWe have to sleep with the windows open, do exercises, and only get extra food or blankets if we do well.\u201d Ben added, \u201cGrandma says it makes us strong like Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we arrived home, Nathan was confused about our early return. I confronted him, furious. To my shock, he defended his mother\u2019s methods, saying it\u2019s how he was raised. \u201cIt made me resilient,\u201d he said. But I couldn\u2019t agree. \u201cThis is not discipline, Nathan. This is abuse,\u201d I replied, determined to put an end to it. Nathan seemed conflicted, but I was clear: our children\u2019s health and well-being had to come first, no matter his upbringing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When my kids started coming home sick after visits with their grandmother, Eileen, I brushed it off at first. But deep down, I felt uneasy. Nathan, my husband, always downplayed my concerns, saying, \u201cIt builds character.\u201d One Saturday, I dropped Alex and Ben at Eileen\u2019s house and headed home, only to realize I had forgotten …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}