Mom Arrested for Washing Kid's Mouth With Soap

[tomhawk]

lol!

[Lex]

I think the kids swear because their parents swear. I think it's abuse when the parents are swearing in the home but punish the child when the child swears. It's like when parents who smoke punish their child when he/she starts smoking.

My parents never cussed and so I never cussed. It wasn't even something my parents ever talked to me about. My parents never smoked and I never smoked.

I think that a majority of this kind of punishment is parents punishing their children for behaviors that the parents themselves taught to the kids.

I forget the psychological name for this type of behavior when one person constantly sees their own faults in other people and punishes the other person instead of themselves.

[Pat McCotter]

My grandparents didn't cuss. We weren't allowed to say "darn" or  "geez". We learned those words in school.

[Little Owl]

What a wonderful utopian world we would live in if the worst thing we had to worry about was children swearing.  I discourage my children from swearing, but at the same time I realize the necessity of balance and don't make a big deal out of it.

Perspective.

[KBCraig]

My experience with kids (having been one, and having five) is that most kids don't learn cursing from their parents, they learn it from other kids, usually in school.

[Tom Sawyer]

William has corrected my colorful speech on a few occassions... good kid.

[Lloyd Danforth]

My experience with kids (having been one, and having five) is that most kids don't learn cursing from their parents, they learn it from other kids, usually in school.

And....Mary picks it up from them?

[KBCraig]

My experience with kids (having been one, and having five) is that most kids don't learn cursing from their parents, they learn it from other kids, usually in school.

And....Mary picks it up from them?

She was a child of the streets. 

Despite my very rarely cursing (profanity is like caffeine: most effective when you save it until it's really needed), Sarah only occasionally slipping one in, and Mary being a bit... umm, more free with her verse, John David seems to have an innate understanding that there are certain words he can't (or shouldn't) say.

He'll turn 7 in two weeks. It's funny watching him ask questions about a subject that requires quoting from a book or TV show. "What did they mean when they said that word I can't say?" 

[David]

I guess I find it interesting as people debate what child abuse is, or isn't, that rarely is it mentioned that parents and adults in general will treat their children in ways they would never want to be treated today. 
Of course everyone who beats their children say 'well my parents did it and it did me some good'.  The problem is that time fades pain, in other words, people look at the past with rosy colored glasses.  They forget how much they hated the beatings hurt.  But they sure the hell don't want to be treated in the present the same way they treat their kids.     Arbitrary rules enforced by pain mechanisms.  Such as;  Speeding?  Get whipped in public. 

[BillKauffman]

I forget the psychological name for this type of behavior when one person constantly sees their own faults in other people and punishes the other person instead of themselves.

Projection...

[BillKauffman]

Well maybe they will have cleaner teeth but how can you say there will be "no negative" psychological effects?

Someone's been watching a little too much Oprah.  The whole point of punishment is to induce an unpleasant experience and create a psychological response in the child by associating the punishment with the crime.  Washing one's mouth out with soap causes neither permanent nor temporary physical damage.

Any child who suffers permanent "negative psychological effects" at the slightest act of physical discomfort has much bigger psychological problems than a mouth washing will ever induce.  How do you expect the kid to cope in the face of genuine pain not induced by a third party?

No wonder we're raising a nation of pansies!

The major psychological issue that most families are dealing with is shame.

Shame is a feeling of complete worthlessness of the self by oneself.

Washing a kid's mouth out with soap has nothing to do with physical pain but deliberate emotional pain that shames.