In separate interviews, Whitney and her
mother both refer to similar incidents in Whitney's childhood and
use the same adjectives to describe a young Whitney. And both
mothers indicate unequivocally that they do not believe in
sparing the rod. "Yes, I discipline her," Whitney says, "on occasion when I really think that Bobbi Kris (Whitney`s daughter) is beside herself, which sometimes she is. And I am the disciplinarian, because her father is putty and he never lays a hand on any of his children. But he has a way of making things understood, like my dad did. I try not to spank Bobbi. The Bible says, 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.' If you take a rod to the child, you make the child respect you, help that child understand that there has to be mutual respect. Bobbi Kris can't cross a certain line with me. She knows that.
"But when I must discipline her, I cry harder than she does, because it hurts," the mother admits. "My mother used to say, 'It hurts me more than it hurts you.' I understand that now. I never understood that concept before, the pain of having to discipline a child."