Do You Punish Your Kids For Swearing?by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger 18 Oct 2009 04:29 AM If you do, then you might want to rethink your discipline strategy, especially if it includes washing your kid's mouth out with soap. My parents made the popular soap-eating threat on numerous occasions while I was growing up, though thankfully, they never had to follow through. Such is not the case with a Florida family, who recently made headlines for taking the soap punishment to extremes. According to news reports, Florida police jailed and charged Wilfredo Rivera and Adriyanna Herdener with neglect of a child and child abuse for forcing an eight-year-old girl to chew on soap after she swore at her mom. The girl's mom, Adriyanna, reportedly made her daughter suck on a bar of soap, then had her chew on it for 10 minutes. When the girl complained that the soap was making her throat hurt, the mom administered cough syrup, hoping to ease the girl's pain. Can you say ironic? However, police say, when the cough syrup did nothing to alleviate the young girl's pain, the mom's boyfriend Wilfredo (who cops say suggested the soap trick to begin with) took the youngster to the hospital. According to hospital officials, the girl, who suffers from asthma, was wheezing, gasping for air and had developed a swollen lip. Needless to say, Adriyanna and Wilfredo had a LOT of explaining to do. Police took the two to jail while the girl was placed in child protective custody. Apparently, Wilfredo wanted police to take note that he didn't leave the girl rolling around at home in pain. Still, cops didn't seem all that impressed that Wilfredo took the kid to the hospital given that it was his idea to have the girl chew on soap to begin with. Who knows; maybe Wilfredo was made to suck on soap when he swore at home as a child. Of course, look how he turned out. He'll have a criminal record if he is convicted, and he's probably out a girlfriend, if Adriyanna has a single functioning brain cell in her head. As for the old soap punishment, I'm thinking that should be retired for good. What do you think? Would you consider washing your kid's mouth out with soap if he swore at you? What method of punishment do you prefer to keep your kids in line? Related Articles: Do Your Kids Need a Manners Makeover? Learn more about Michele Cheplic  Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Relevantparenting tags User Comments  Dale Harcombe (10327) 18 Oct 2009 12:41 PMThat is dreadful! No, We never did anything like that with our children, when thye were growing up. However they weren't allowed to get away with swearing either. We might have sent them to their room or come up with some other punishment after we gave them a good talking to and told them they weren't to use words like that. In any case, it was never a major problem. It was a rare occurence. They didn't hear that sort of language at home, so didn't tend to use it either.  Andrea Hermitt (5507) 19 Oct 2009 07:28 AMI think my mom made someone in our house lick a bar of ivory soap once and they promptly rinsed their mouth with water. Soap has lye and perfumes in it and it is poisonous. Still swearing at parents should be punished.  Michele Cheplic (37339) 20 Oct 2009 01:43 AMYou have to wonder who came up with the whole wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap punishment to begin with--probably some frustrated mother who felt spanking was not effective. Community Tags bad language, parents, swearing, washing out mouth with soap Discuss this article
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