My Mom Should Have Gone To Jail? (here I go on my soapbox)

As I child, my brother and I would say "bad words". I didn't know what they meant, or why they were bad, I just knew they bad, because my older brother said they were. We would sometimes sit in his upstairs bedroom, and use them. Over and over and over. Who knows what the reason was, we just did it.

That was until those words somehow leaked from our mouths outside the confines of our elevated sanctuary. Come to find out, our mother didn't like those words. At all. Do you know what she did? She washed our mouth out with soap.

Now, being the progressive society that we were at the time, there was this fantastic new invention that made the washing of hands more convenient. It was called liquid soap. This was the kind of soap we had. It was called Dial soap. And my mother figured that the most best way to apply the use of this industrial marvel was to place it on our toothbrushes, and use it to hand our our punishment.

Here's the best part- when your mother is brushing your teeth for you, while the brush is covered in liquid soap, it can jab the inside of your mouth quite a bit. So not only do you get the experience of your mouth being 'washed out', you also get some slight breakage of the skin that also gets to enjoy this disinfecting pleasure. Added bonus- days later our toothbrushes would still taste like soap, so you would remember what happened long after the punishment had been administered.

I'm not sure if you've noticed- but as of yet, I'm not a axe wielding felon who swears like a sailor. It seems this experience didn't ruin me or a person, or have any long lasting damage (except for one- I cannot, to this day, smell Dial soap and not think of those days). My mom did what a parent should do, punish kids with dirty little mouths. It taught me and my brother respect, and a host of other things. I'm pretty sure that neither of us ever went to a job interview and said, "Hey, how the bleep are you? I'm here for my bleeping job interview".

Apparently a parent in Miami did not elude the authorities as my mother did. You can read her story here Some mom went to jail for using soap on her kid.

Seriously? As if society didn't have enough problems, we've taken yet another parenting tool out of the arsenal. No more spanking, no more sent to bed without dinner, and now now soap?

Here's the nugget for the day- and I'll choose my words wisely because if not, some government organization will probably be on my porch by lunchtime.

God loves us, and wants us to love our kids. He doesn't want us to beat them senseless or to hurt them. But, at the same time, if you are a parent, you must realize, and help your child realize that you are the parent, and they are the child. Allowing your children to run all over you in the long run is a plan for disaster.

I don't remember many 'long talks' from my mom. I do remember what dial tastes like, and I don't swear that much. There is nothing wrong with a little discipline now and then. It was good for me in the long run.

Be blessed, and thanks Mom.
matt