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August 24, 2004
Crossing the Line
There's a difference between spanking a child's bottom and beating them....and then there's this. (Link via Drudge)
The practice of "hot saucing" a child's tongue as a method of discipline may seem cruel to some parents, but those who regularly use the punishment say it teaches their charges valuable and long-lasting lessons.
You know, we used to fill up eggs with pepper sauce to break an egg-sucking dog, but I've never heard of doing that to a child. What is wrong with you people?
Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair on the popular 1980s TV series Facts of Life, is an advocate and practitioner of "hot saucing." Whelchel, the author of Creative Correction: Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline, says the practice worked for her children when other disciplinary actions did not....Whelchel says she's been aware for some time that many people are strongly opposed to hot saucing, (which was covered in The Washington Post earlier this month) a form of discipline that's been around for decades, but she says she believes in many different creative ways to discipline, including this one.
"It's totally against popular opinion in culture these days," Whelchel said. "I prefer my child receive a small amount of pain from my hand of love than to encounter a lot more pain in life," she said.
Yeah well lady, I've heard parents say that a lot.....while in court trying to explain to the judge why what they did wasn't child abuse. When anyone with half a brain knew it was.
Whelchel said hot saucing works better than traditional spanking when it comes to offenses related to the child's mouth.
"It's a logical consequence. If you cause somebody pain, either by the words you say by lying and not being a trustworthy person or by biting, this is a logical consequence. It's your mouth that's the offender," she said.
If that's how her mind works, I'd hate to think of how her children were potty trained.
Posted by Rita at August 24, 2004 05:06 PM
Comments
I work with a woman who does this - the first time I encountered it was when I was on the phone with her and her kid was acting up in the background (like they ALWAYS do when mommy's on the phone) and she said, "Do you want some hot sauce?" I thought she was talking to me and was giving it, "Sure! I love hot sauce!" After she explained it to me I was absolutely horrified.
Until I met her monster of a child. That kid is straight-up psychotic - until mom offers her the hot sauce. Then she's a little angel.
My co-worker said she's only ever had to actually "sauce" her daughter four or five times in three years. The rest of it is very much a "you wait until your father gets home!" kind of thing.
I would never do it, personally, but then again I'd never wash my kids' mouthes out with soap, either - which is still a really popular form of discipline and largely considered perfectly acceptable. At least hot sauce is food.
Posted by: picklejuice at August 24, 2004 06:39 PM
Soap is unacceptable in my book as well.
Posted by: rita at August 25, 2004 08:01 AM
When I was a kid, I wouldn't stop sucking my thumb.
At her wits end, my mom covered my thumb with Tabasco.
Problem solved.
On the other hand, it was about 25 years before I could eat anything with Tabasco in it.
Posted by: Craig at August 25, 2004 08:12 AM
I have two minds on this, as I have children who have come home from school with interesting vocabularies. I detest parents who don't correct their children, but I also emphasize the word correct, and the other equally good word, discipline. I had my kids write lines. If they are unable to write, a time out. I had a friend who tossed cold water on her child...when my (then) little ones got hot under the collar and swore, I
put them in a time out and gave them a cold wet wash cloth to hold. They could suck on it, wipe their faces and hands, etc.
My brother and his wife use a dab of vanilla on the child's tongue. It doesn't blister but it does taste nasty and takes a while to go away.
Hot saucing IS cruel. And I never liked Blair anyway.
Posted by: Cricket at August 25, 2004 08:22 AM
You can discipline a child without doing things like that.
Craig, my son's doctor once insisted that I try hot sauce to break my son's thumb sucking habit. However, my son loves hot sauce so needless to say that didn't work. So I just left him alone, and he stopped on his own. I figured there were worse things he could be doing. You gotta pick your battles you know.
Posted by: rita at August 25, 2004 09:43 AM
I had a friend who actually offered the kids a choice between grounding and a single drop of tabasco. They generally chose the tabasco. They were also very well-behaved kids.
Posted by: Keith at August 25, 2004 12:03 PM
Well, there are sick parents out there who actually advocate spanking infants. What bugs me is that while I generally use the time out and cold washcloth (they like it because they can twist it and pull on it and expend some energy), when to start correcting bad behavior is still a matter of debate. Okay...if the child is old enough to understand the correction (do you know why Mom is putting you in time out?) then they are old enough to be taught correct principles and given a chance to govern themselves.
A "no" is enough with a distraction up to a point.
Correcting with love need not involve physical pain. The only pain that SHOULD be associated with correcting behavior is the child's remorse,
and willingness to try to overcome it.
THAT is what I strive for with my kids.
Posted by: La Femme Crickita at August 29, 2004 06:20 PM