[tazmom]

I was influenced by Dobson in the sense that my parents followed his teachings and I wanted to do things as differently as possible from them.

I can still remember the day my dad recommended I read Dobson. I had never heard of him. Then I saw all the torment and abuse and fear I had suffered all laid out in a book. I was so ANGRY! How dare this random person write a book and destroy my life! It was all in there, the accusations of enjoying conflict, defiance for not implicitly agreeing with my parents, the idea that everything I did to act out was done in direct rebellion. The spanking rituals.

I learned later that it wasn't all the book. My father's family had a long history of abuse. Dobson's ideas simply justified it as "Biblical."