Do you think the Chief was abusive? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

JRDM · 06-02-2009, 07:04 PM

In some of the episodes he got pretty physical. He slapped both Katie and Julie. Now I can definitely see why he got so mad at them on the occasions that he slapped them. Katie disrespected her deceased mother, and Julie broke the Chief's rules and then lied to him about it. He had the perfect right to be very upset. However, slapping a kid is just not good. Sure, both Katie and Julie deserved to be punished in some way, but slapping seemed a little much to me. Now of course I realize that this was the early 1980s, and the world is very different now. It's not fair to judge the Chief's disciplinary actions by 2009 standards. I was alive at that time but was very young. Perhaps someone who vividly remembers those days can contribute to this discussion.

Along with the slapping, the Chief on a few occasions threatened to whip all three daughters with his belt. Now I basically have no problem with that. I'm for corporal punishment when it is warranted. I grew up with it as my parents were old school like the Chief. I know with the belt thing as well that it was a different time in our country. As I said in an earlier post, I don't think for a minute that they would have a TV dad take his belt off today. And as someone said in an earlier post, if the modern TV dad did, it would be a very special episode and not simply in passing. With the Chief it was simply in passing that he made those threats.

So, the Chief slapped, and he spanked with a belt. You can infer that most of his spankings were with the belt. Although, in one episode Samantha said something about it being murder when the Chief spanked you, and by the way she said it you could infer that he sometimes spanked only with his open hand. Perhaps when he threatened it was with the belt, but when he actually spanked it was only with his hand. Do you think he really could have used his belt on them? He was certainly strong enough to give a sufficiently convincing whipping with just his hand.

Unlike the slaps, there were never any actual spankings shown on screen, just threats. However, one could infer that the Chief had definitely spanked his daughters on a few occasions. After Samantha said the "n" word, he told her that she was going to get the spanking of her life. The "of your life" part could infer that he had spanked her in the past. Plus, the way she runs off before he even says anything infers that she knew she would probably get a spanking for saying that word. She runs off immediately. Why would she run off if she wasn't trying to avoid a spanking?

So, what do you think? Was the Chief an abusive dad or just an old school no-nonsense dad? The slaps were rather harsh. How harsh do you think the spankings were?

06-02-2009, 07:04 PM	#1
JRDM Member Occasional Poster Join Date: May 23, 2007 Posts: 88	Do you think the Chief was abusive? In some of the episodes he got pretty physical. He slapped both Katie and Julie. Now I can definitely see why he got so mad at them on the occasions that he slapped them. Katie disrespected her deceased mother, and Julie broke the Chief's rules and then lied to him about it. He had the perfect right to be very upset. However, slapping a kid is just not good. Sure, both Katie and Julie deserved to be punished in some way, but slapping seemed a little much to me. Now of course I realize that this was the early 1980s, and the world is very different now. It's not fair to judge the Chief's disciplinary actions by 2009 standards. I was alive at that time but was very young. Perhaps someone who vividly remembers those days can contribute to this discussion. Along with the slapping, the Chief on a few occasions threatened to whip all three daughters with his belt. Now I basically have no problem with that. I'm for corporal punishment when it is warranted. I grew up with it as my parents were old school like the Chief. I know with the belt thing as well that it was a different time in our country. As I said in an earlier post, I don't think for a minute that they would have a TV dad take his belt off today. And as someone said in an earlier post, if the modern TV dad did, it would be a very special episode and not simply in passing. With the Chief it was simply in passing that he made those threats. So, the Chief slapped, and he spanked with a belt. You can infer that most of his spankings were with the belt. Although, in one episode Samantha said something about it being murder when the Chief spanked you, and by the way she said it you could infer that he sometimes spanked only with his open hand. Perhaps when he threatened it was with the belt, but when he actually spanked it was only with his hand. Do you think he really could have used his belt on them? He was certainly strong enough to give a sufficiently convincing whipping with just his hand. Unlike the slaps, there were never any actual spankings shown on screen, just threats. However, one could infer that the Chief had definitely spanked his daughters on a few occasions. After Samantha said the "n" word, he told her that she was going to get the spanking of her life. The "of your life" part could infer that he had spanked her in the past. Plus, the way she runs off before he even says anything infers that she knew she would probably get a spanking for saying that word. She runs off immediately. Why would she run off if she wasn't trying to avoid a spanking? So, what do you think? Was the Chief an abusive dad or just an old school no-nonsense dad? The slaps were rather harsh. How harsh do you think the spankings were?