>It's true that this is a special case, but it's meant to clearly illustrate the underlying truth: to have positive outcomes, most children require variable amo

>It's true that this is a special case, but it's meant to clearly illustrate the underlying truth: to have positive outcomes, most children require variable amounts of coercion. Because it's a special case it doesn't actually illustrate this "underlying truth". I think this kind of coercion tries to normalize kids, to make them more like parents think all the other kids are like. However, it's quite common that parents, for some reason, don't seem to understand (remember) what kids are actually like. Coercing a child can backfire disastrously. It can make them dependent on you and thus unable to deal with life later on. It can make them reject you and rebel against you and the values you try to teach them. What I'm trying to say is that this isn't predictable. There is no straightforward "children need coercion" type thing. If my parents had tried to be as controlling as many people in this thread seem to be, then I would probably never have spoken to them as an adult.