January 30, 2012
Editor’s Note: Carole Townsend, a correspondent for the Daily Post, is writing a blog called “Food for Thought.” It is available online at http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/townsend.
I was listening to a radio station this morning on my way to my favorite coffee purveyor. It was a local Gulf Shores station that plays '80s music. I can’t bring myself to call that music “oldies.” Is it? Anyway, no matter.
I want to get your opinion on something. During the "talk" portion of the show, the DJs asked listeners to solve a domestic squabble between a call-in husband and his wife. It seems Dad and his buddies were watching football this past weekend (old Superbowl re-runs, since the big day isn’t for almost a week). The guys were enjoying wings and beer, and the couple’s son was watching the game with all of them, kind of a male bonding, coming-of-age privilege the kid was enjoying for the first time.
In other words, all the guys in the room already knew the outcome of the game, so it didn’t matter so much if the boy asked a few questions here and there, breaking the spell of the unbridled joy of spectator competition. Unfortunately, the language in the room was classic as well, and Dad especially kept using the Queen Mother of all bad words within earshot of his 8-year-old son.
Predictably, the little boy dropped that same zinger on his mom that very afternoon. And that’s when the the conflict arose: mom washed the kid's mouth out with soap. The dad was outraged and said that her actions were tantamount to child abuse. Call-in listeners came down on both sides of the issue, about 50-50.
Did Mom do the right thing? My knee-jerk reaction is to say that yes, she did. I only say that because I have a child who always loved the shock factor. She would blurt out the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate times, then revel in the reactions she inevitably got from her audience. I’ll admit; in her case, soap came to be the only answer. In my opinion, the abuse would have been in NOT correcting her. Now another of my children? No, I wouldn't have done it. In other words, I think extreme circumstances call for extreme measures.
In my defense, I did check with her pediatrician to be sure I wasn’t poisoning her before I did it. She got to be such a pro that we eventually reached the point that she had her favorite flavors. She knew what would happen if she got busted, but every now and then, she just couldn’t stop herself. Fortunately, she outgrew that “shock-for-the-sake-of-shock” phase and has moved on.
But back to my story. One caller, a 78-year-old woman, chimed in on the discussion, and I’m still laughing about what she had to say. Every other word she said had to be bleeped out, but the gist of her monologue went something like this:
"I say (bleep) yeah you have to beat their (bleep), and when they get older, you have to call the police and get ‘em to take' em away if they (bleep) back talk." Now I'm not saying she was right, but I’m guessing there wasn’t a lot of cursing and other inappropriate behavior in this woman’s home when her kids were younger.
With respect to the original radio caller this morning – the dad asking whether washing his son had been permanently scarred by mom's actions -- I have an opinion. I think Dad should've had his mouth washed out with soap. Anyone knows that a child will regurgitate anything he hears, especially when he hears it from a parent.
And for Pete’s sake man; you were watching re-runs?
What do you think?
Carole Townsend is also a Gwinnett Daily Post staff correspondent and author of the recently-released book, “Southern Fried White Trash.” The book takes a humorous look at families and how we behave when thrown together for weddings, funerals and holidays. She has been quoted on msnbc.com, in the LA Times and the Christian Science Monitor, been featured on FOX 5 News and CNN, and is often a guest on radio shows nationwide.
Comments
hepmepez 3 months, 3 weeks ago
It totally depends on the child in question. Some children only need a stern look or a talking-to. Other children need more extreme measures. You know your child. If the mom thought the action warranted soap, then so be it. I have 4 children. Only 2 of them ever had soaped mouths. And only 1 needed it to be done more than once.
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