Healthy Parenting and the Borders of Child Abuse: How Sauce and Cold Showers Have No Place in Punishment or Control
Several days ago I read about the mother of an adopted child who decided to discipline her son by forcing him to ingest Hot Sauce as a punishment for misbehaving as well as putting the boy into a cold shower to teach him a lesson. That is most certainly crossing the border of what constitutes Child Abuse!
Woman Convicted of Child Abuse in Hot Sauce Case
This woman actually sent a film clip to the Dr. Phil show thinking that she would get on the television program! When the public saw her story, the authorities got involved and investigated her for Child Abuse. She was convicted for using Hot Sauce as punishment when her Russian-born adopted son lied about getting into trouble in school.
Now she’s in trouble for shoving Hot Sauce down this child’s throat and then forcing him to stand in a cold shower for pretending to have a sword fight with pencils at school. She needs extensive counseling to learn healthy parenting skills. She is not fit to parent and I hope that the courts and the social workers consider placing the children in her home in the care of alternative providers until she can demonstrate that she has redeemed herself and learned more mature methods of discipline and child care.
Corporal Punishment goes beyond the typical spanking or beating or belting to include using harsh physical substances which cause pain and discomfort to the child. Some parents will bite the child who bites them, but in this case; it’s better not to force this woman to ingest Hot Sauce to teach her a lesson. She would be better rehabilitated by requiring her to prepare food at a public school under the watchful management of other kitchen staff in a cafeteria and learn to serve children, instead of injure them with food.
Hot Sauce can be abusive to the human body, even when it is not intended as a punishment. Some people are going to extremes to endure the ‘heat’ of peppers that are off the Skoville scale like the ghost peppers. There are even restaurants and collectors who get the key ingredient in hot peppers and use it in recipes for Hot Sauces. They yearn for the burn! This is a distressing trend that is just as harmful as other forms of physical abuse.
The human digestive system is not equipped for extreme ‘heat’. Relatively hot and warming foods occur in nature, but there is only one species that combines foods in such a way as to obliterate the taste buds, set fire to the stomach lining, and irritate the intestines to the point of blistering rawness that costs a big price in the end…
It’s not a ‘manly’ thing to do to try to consume the ‘hottest’ of the Hot Sauces on wings and things! It’s stupid and these people are fools that have no respect for their bodies. No woman should ever force a child to consume Hot Sauce either. Food should not be the enemy nor the source of punishment or control over another human being, especially a child.
In other health News, Joey Vento who was the owner of Geno’s Steaks and an icon for Philly Cheesesteaks died of a heart attack after being diagnosed for colorectal cancer.
Geno’s Philly Cheesesteaks Owner Dies of Heart Attack
Two strikes against the friendly man who learned the business from his father in the 1940s and asked people nicely to speak English when ordering their cheesesteaks in his establishment. He got a lot of flack for his request, but many Italian immigrants held the attitude of adopting the primary language of the country where they moved to out of respect…not discrimination! My own grandfather told my mother that he did not want to teach her Italian at an early age, because she should speak English in America to honor her new home!
It’s a cultural thing to speak the primary language in a new country and to go into business by providing traditional foods to your neighborhood. These Italian immigrants probably used more cheese, more fatty ingredients, and fewer vegetables in their steak sandwiches than what you normally find in Italy; but the Philadelphia public loved to eat them that way.
It goes to show you that it was an unhealthy choice in food. Cancer in the digestive system and heart disease is not considered a healthy result of eating Philly Cheesesteaks for decades, even though you have a jovial attitude. If only those sandwiches had been full of more onions, green and red peppers, garlic, and sea salt. Perhaps if Joey had known the secrets of including fresh citrus juices like lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, and mandarin to his diet to combat the fat; he might have lived a little longer and been healthier with some minor changes in his food regimen. But he probably ate what he served in his restaurant…
Meat and cheese are not usually the stars of the show in Italy. They use meat in moderation and place greater emphasis on fresh produce, spices, herbs, and greens that people do in the United States’ version of Italian food. Meat and cheese need to be more minor ingredients to prevent these health problems. Live and learn…or eat that way only to die to set an example for future generations!
All things considered, food needs to be used as a source for nourishment and health, instead of over-indulgence and punishment. The borders are clear for most of us, but there are those who blur those boundaries of what is appropriate and what constitutes abusive behavior.
