PS: Stephanie Metz Doesn't Understand Abuse, And...

I like everything that she said but for the following:

"There was a time – not too long ago – when bullying was defined as slamming someone up against a locker and stealing their lunch money. There was a time when kids got called names and got picked on, and they brushed it off and worked through it (ask me how I know this). Now, if Sally calls Susie a bitch (please excuse my language if that offends you), Susie’s whole world crumbles around her, she contemplates suicide, and this society encourages her to feel like her world truly has ended, and she should feel entitled to a world-wide pity party. And Sally – phew! She should be jailed! She should be thrown in juvenile detention for acting like – gasp – a teenage girl acts."

Mrs. Metz, with all due respect, you don't understand real verbal abuse. You don't just "[brush] it off and [work] through it." Susie may be abused at home, and Sally's abuse may be the proverbial straw on the camel's back. Verbal (and emotional, physical, mental/psychological, spiritual and—the only one which I never had to experience as far as I know, thank God—sexual) abuse is no joke, and not something to "[brush] off...and [work] through."

I hope that you don't verbally abuse your own kids, because you and they are in for a hard reality check—and you may be in for a hard reality check at their hands:

1. Verbal abuse leaves intangible, internal scars.
2. Verbal abuse is a form of emotional and mental abuse.
3. Verbal abuse can lead to physical abuse.
4. Verbal abuse can lead the Susies of this world committing suicide—in your words, "ask me how I know this"—and God forbid that you should ever have to ask your kids or find out (My own mom has had to find out, for example, and that's because she's dealing with quite a bit of the fallout of Dad's verbal and other abuse.).
5. Verbal abuse may affect the setting off of psychological and psychiatric conditions (again, in your words, "ask me how I know this").

I am more than willing to challenge your naive (or what I hope is a naive) view on abuse, and God forbid that you have ever abused or are abusing your kids—and if you are abusing your kids, I hope that someone gets involved really quickly in rescuing your kids from you. By the way, you say that you're 29 years of age. I'm 23, and I can tell you that people like you leave me hopeless about our generation. If you really think that parents who know the realities of abuse are included among those who have "taught that [their kids] shouldn't have to ever put up with anything doesn't make their hearts feel like rainbow colored unicorns are running around pooping skittles onto piles of marshmallows", you are out of your mind—either you need serious help or your kids need serious help. Either way, you need help—whether psychiatric help due to delusions or psychological help due to sociopathy.