Story about parenting red flags and coercion. Remember Little Hercules? The 11 year old boy who was a bodybuilder. We all saw the documentary at the time and smelled something off about the dad and his discipline/regime.

Everyone’s gut was correct. The dad went to prison for domestic violence, at which point the kid stopped training. There are many parents who claim that they are not influencing or coercing a child into extreme behaviours, and the child will often agree.

It is unlikely that any major decisions a child appears to be making are independent of adult influence. I went through this myself. I was adamant at 9 that I was making my own choices. That is just not true, with the benefit of hindsight.

Actually there’s a good line in this podcast about that. I say I became a born-again Christian aged 9, and James says “you’re barely born at 9, how can you be born again”. Indeed. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RADvD2scdxA7kGVm0niUc?si=qzJ2TI_9QYGvRxSlYvvsCA

Ian McEwan explores this subject very well in the novel The Children Act. Don’t bother with the film, it’s bad. The book is excellent.