Not sure about that. And I don't mean "I'm not sure it's not okay to hit your child in the FACE" (as happened in this series), but spanking? Eh. Myself and my sisters turned out fine after it. Anecdotal, sure, but I don't have much else.

That said the dad regretted hitting her immediately, obviously was like "oh shit, I shouldn't have done that", and his daughter actually overplayed the injury. He's not the sort to use that kind of punishment, and it was probably a rookie parenting mistake.

I will withhold my opinion on spanking because I don't think this is the place for it. I know there are implications that the father in this story has been a victim of circumstance, but I really have to question why his go to parenting style is to be consistently negative and irritable towards his child, and that he would even be tempted to strike his daughter in the face. I know parenting style is a highly individual thing, but at what point do we start holding someone accountable for their mistakes? Does having a busy and demanding life excuse you from your obligation to treat others respectfully? (These aren't rhetorical questions, I really do wonder about these things)

last edited at Nov 17, 2016 5:24AM

I will withhold my opinion on spanking because I don't think this is the place for it. I know there are implications that the father in this story has been a victim of circumstance, but I really have to question why his go to parenting style is to be consistently negative and irritable towards his child, and that he would even be tempted to strike his daughter in the face. I know parenting style is a highly individual thing, but at what point do we start holding someone accountable for their mistakes? Does having a busy and demanding life excuse you from your obligation to treat others respectfully? (These aren't rhetorical questions, I really do wonder about these things)

He really isn't "consistently negative". He demonstrates that he finds her cute regularly, and he doesn't consider a bane of his existence or something. He's a parent who gets annoyed when his brat of a daughter doesn't do chores. That's...extremely common. Natural, in fact. And he doesn't even really punish her, except a vague event in the past he instantly regretted. She gets an allowance, she gets his affection, how many "mistakes" are there, really? Some insensitivity toward a situation he could never relate to (i.e. menstruation)?

You also don't really have to "respect" your kids, because kids are generally kind of awful. You raise your kids, and don't treat them badly, but they're generally too immature to be deserving of respect. That said, blogging about his lazy daughter without her consent was somewhat lacking in respect on one hand, but on the other a lot of parents do that and it's not REALLY harmful.

But really, I think your perception of him as a parent is too negative. His daughter doesn't even hate him, though she complains regularly (and of course she does, because she's around that age). He's an awkward parent for sure, but meh, he's also alone. Aside, never really understood why people get upset over the prospect of spanking, having known children who suffered actual abuse.

last edited at Nov 17, 2016 9:09AM

I think this isn't the place for an in-depth discussion of spanking, although I could say a fair bit about it. Stick to the story, thanks.

@Swifft These are all good points, it's been a while since I read the manga so my perception of the father was extremely skewed, I low key confused him with the dad from Clannad. I will say that I think it is possible and optimal to respect your children, though by that I mean "consider what they say if their concern is legitimate" not "aquiese to their every whim." On the subject of chores and brattiness, much as we'd like to, we can only control a person's behavior so far. I always did what my parents asked because I wanted to, while my brother stubbornly refused to do household chores at all, and still grew up to be a responsible and kind adult. Just a lot of variability in response to parenting

@Swifft These are all good points, it's been a while since I read the manga so my perception of the father was extremely skewed, I low key confused him with the dad from Clannad. I will say that I think it is possible and optimal to respect your children, though by that I mean "consider what they say if their concern is legitimate" not "aquiese to their every whim." On the subject of chores and brattiness, much as we'd like to, we can only control a person's behavior so far. I always did what my parents asked because I wanted to, while my brother stubbornly refused to do household chores at all, and still grew up to be a responsible and kind adult. Just a lot of variability in response to parenting

Raising children is hard. I didn't always do my chores either and I still kinda don't, though I wasn't punished for that harshly (I was only ever actually punished for doing outright BAD things -- which I did). Trying to get a kid to do chores can just be an uphill battle and it all depends on the kid.

Also, the father in Clannad...if I recall correctly he was bad as a plot point; like that was a central issue, so if you did indeed get them a bit mixed up I can completely understand the opinion. Chihiro (the father in Sen to Man) is just not ideal, I guess I'd say, but who ever is really an absolutely ideal parent? Since his daughter isn't ACTUALLY losing her mind over him, I think he's doing more than well.

On that note, there IS a more questionable father in the form of their neighbor's dad in this series, although I find it interesting that he might actually be a good FATHER to his child, but it's not clear since our perception is through that of a kid who's experienced trauma.

Well, I wrote a lot about this in my review, but basically there's a lot more to this series than might initially appear to be the case. It's not JUST a manga about a somewhat contentious parent/child combo, basically.

last edited at Nov 17, 2016 8:31PM

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/sen_to_man_ch18#11

HA!

Totally played!

On the newer chapter being updated elsewhere....

Thank God the hetero ship got sunk. So now I can start to ship Shima with her friend again.

That ending sure was abrupt. Would have liked to have seen a couple more heartwarming father daughter moments to close it out.

??? THAT'S the ending?! We don't even get to see who they meet?

So is this worth reading?

RPPuzzle posted:

So is this worth reading?

If you like realistic depiction of teen girl and single father everyday life, then it's great. Shima is adorable.

RPPuzzle posted:

So is this worth reading?

If you like realistic depiction of teen girl and single father everyday life, then it's great. Shima is adorable.

an adorable brat.