Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Power-Washing Your Kid: Passing Fad or Good Parenting?

A few days ago I read about a woman in Florida who power-washed
her 2.5-year-old kid because the girl was apparently having a tantrum. The incident was caught on an unpleasant CCTV video and caused at least a small uproar.

What surprised me most about the whole thing is that it's apparently not common practice. Being mercifully sans children, I'd just assumed that at least every third child wailing like a demon at Target was taken outside in short order and given a good dousing. That's what we do with the cat when it's clawing the couch. (With a water pistol, not a car wash hose, but the cat's smaller.) And when dog's are fighting the recommendation is often to throw a bucket of water on them. Seems to me it's a fairly reliable way of discouraging unwanted behavior. Plus, some people just find it refreshing.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I had heard something about the woman cutting off the kid's toe with the force of the water ... but, when I read all the stories on cnn.com there was no mention of that, so it was apparently a new urban legend. I'm not sure it was the brightest idea; however, we have a client whom shall remain nameless who has done far worse.