As a parent, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’re going to force your kids into participating in a few unwanted family activities, such as summer road trips or family game nights.
You justify your actions with lectures of “family bonding” and the “you’re going off to college soon” mantra. It's OK, your children will eventually get it.
Stuff like this is a normal part of growing up, and at some point, they’ll come to miss it, just like you did.
That is, unless that forced family activity turns into be being brutally beaten for two hours in a sword fight with your “Renaissance fighter” father, against your will, all in the middle of the night.
And that is exactly the kind of “family bonding” the 16-year-old stepdaughter of Fremon Seay, 38, had to endure.
Seay, a Washington state father, was arrested Sunday for allegedly beating his daughter with switches, then forcing her to don Renaissance-style body armor, similar to LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) gear, and combat him with a wooden sword, for two hours until the teen finally collapsed.
He is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
Seay left his daughter with “severe bruises and welts all across her body,” according to ABC News. “She’s a 100-pound girl, and he’s a 300-pound adult,” noted Lt. Greg Elwin of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
Police were finally alerted to the incident after the daughter texted, accompanied by photos of the injuries, to a friend, who proceeded to call 911.
The make-up of the parenting situation gets worse — Seay’s wife is also being charged as an accessory to the assault, according to Seattle Weekly. A great example set by a daycare employee.
So why exactly did Fremon Seary brutally force his daughter into unfair combat, with his apathetic wife as an audience?
Discipline.
“The couple told officers they punished the teen for going to a party without their permission,” reported MSNBC.
Right, because that behavior is completely unprecedented in teenagers.
After the initial beating, Seary, who I remind you is a 38-year-old, 300 lb. brick wall of a man, was reported as saying, “Now that you're 16, we can fight. Go put on your armor.” I’m pretty sure that logic wouldn’t fly even in the most “ye olde” of Renaissance-era courts.
This isn’t just a case of violence being used to discipline a child or a moment of misguided parenting. If that were the case, it would have stopped at the initial beating.
Clear malice and ill will entered the fray when Seary instructed his daughter to fight him, knowing full well she could only get further hurt due to his size and experience.
It’s important to remember that Seary and his wife are not reflections of the Renaissance and LARPing communities as a whole.
No, they’re clearly abusive, imbalanced individuals who made the error of bringing the fantasy home, where the price was paid by their daughter.
Reach the columnist at dsydiong@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
