Status Updates From Not Even My Name

After she confides in church people about her husband beating her children when they misbehave, they go behind her back to get him sent to Bellevue. She gets him out because she knows he's sane, just strict, and concludes, "That was the problem with men in those days. They just didn't know how to be firm and tender at the same time." I don't know that that's just a problem for the past.