Mothers: Don’t Be Your Son’s 1st Victim

Re “Spur Posse Case--The Same Old (Sad) Story” (Robin Abcarian, April 7): You want to know why teen-age boys (the boys at Lakewood High, for one example) treat women with contempt and violence?

I’ve been working as a health care provider for 15 years, and I see a lot of mothers and children in waiting rooms. What I see sometimes appalls and angers me. It used to shock me.

I see mothers letting their little boys hit them and their sisters. In a doctor’s office there was a mother who came in frequently with her 8-year-old son. I watched as he socked her full in the face, with no consequences. He got a hug. He talked to her as though she were his servant.

I have watched a boy of about 10 berate his mother and hit her. She said nothing, only weakly defended herself against the slaps. Recently, I saw a 3-year-old boy as a patient. While I talked to his mother, the sister touched the boy’s watch. He punched her in the chest with what looked like all his might. His mother merely gave her daughter a pat, and acted as though nothing had happened.

Who’s setting the example for this kind of treatment of women? Why are these mothers allowing, and even encouraging, such lessons in violent behavior against women?

CAROL DROWN

Long Beach