The writer would get a court order that would remove Emily from the house and get her parents into counseling. A closer look at the events that culminated in Emily’s punishment indicates that the parents faced a challenge in handling Emily’s failure to perform well in school and do chores at home. According to United States Statutes Pertaining to Spanking, (2007), there are changes in the law that makes parents liable for a criminal conviction for assault.
Based on these changes in law, the writer would secure a court order. Religious matters come after strong convictions. They need a seasoned counselor to help them overcome these beliefs and teach them better parenting methods. This would involve incorporating their religious beliefs and convictions with the knowledge on the learning process of a child and parenting. Due to their cherished and respected convictions, it is hard to persuade them into counseling, thus a court order comes in handy here.
Firstly, these parents are overbearing and too anticipative. They fail to realize that people are born without any cognition and it is only through learning that they acquire knowledge. Fundamentally, learning is a gradual process and it takes time for anyone to learn anything. Moreover, the degree of understanding varies from individual to individual depending on different factors like IQ, environment, and teaching styles among others.
Again, maybe Emily failed to do home chores due to a lack of understanding. From the case study, the parents did not investigate the failure of their child. This portrays a lack of basic parenting skills and they could get that from a counselor. Cann (2009) points out that parents are part of their children’s life and incorporating them in counseling would help to solve problems between the two parties.
According to Gebeke (1994), parents should be calm and honest but not overprotective. This behavior instigates fear, not respect. Corporal punishment cannot promote intelligence and obedience; actually, it promotes backwardness that results from fear of punishment and reprimand. These parents seem to lack this knowledge, however, guidance and counseling would solve the problem. Secondly, these parents are so much into their religious beliefs that a judge or a magistrate could not deal with successfully.
For instance, they believe that they must punish their child. That is true in part, but they lack knowledge on the best way to punish children. Their style of punishment involves putting Emily on a strict diet and giving her thorough beatings. Reprimanding people does not mean they automatically change their ways. Emily’s parents strongly believe that they should penalize their children and a judge cannot change these strongly held religious dogmas.
From the case study, these parents are also resistant to advice as they believe that they are right, courtesy of their religious beliefs. This qualifies the necessity of a court order in handling this case to force them into counseling. A counselor or better still, a psychologist would handle this case in a better way than anybody else would. These specialists understand problems of this nature perfectly. Thus, the writer feels that the efficient way to deal with this case would be forcing the parents into guidance and counseling through a court order, and taking Emily away from the house. Emily appears to be the object of wrath in this case and taking her away would mark the first healing step.
Reference List
Cann, K. (2009). Counseling Service. Web.
Gebeke, G. (2004). Children and Fear. Web.
United States Statutes Pertaining to Spanking. (2007). Web.