Comments on: Would You "Wash" Your Kids Mouth with Liquid Soap?

By: Rob4102

Rob4102 — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Well, when your a senior citizen and you depend on your child for assistance, i hope they dont soap your mouth every time you become a nuisance. Cunt. You are committing a act of child abuse.

By: AL

AL — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:41:23 +0000

i think these days everyone is so concerned with childs rights that they forget that we as parents are responsible for what our kids learn.if i am not being a good example as a parent because of my language then i would expect my wife to wash my mouth out with all the soap she wants to use before she washs the childs mouth out.
if childs needs it then so does the parents also. if more parents got their mouths soaped they would be much better examples as well as words.
i guarantee you if my wife soaped my mouth every single time i deserved it due tomy language,attitude,or yelling, i would be tasting a lot of soap myself.how is that for a 30 day trial? the next 30 day trial would be much better. are you guts enough to try it yourself let alone giving your child no choice in his or her tasting or swallowing soap?
give it a try yourself and see if you change first.
how is that for a dare or30 test?

By: Chelle

Chelle — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:47:00 +0000

I saw that episode too. To make your kid eat liquid soap is one thing but to not learn from your mistake and to not take the criticism for your actions is another. The way she stormed out and flipped out. Can you say “awful mother”?

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:29:25 +0000

I seen that episode. I thought the mother was nuts. Even when I was young when your mouth got soaped you didn’t swallow it. There was no such thing as liquid soap back then.

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:30:46 +0000

Mike, I don’t think you’re a bad person, but you have some very disturbing ideas about children. I understand about PTSD. I have it because of extreme abuse I survived as a child. This included watching my best friend being beaten by her father in front of my as a very young child for a some minor infraction. She has, to her credit, become very successful, however sadly her sister committed suicide. This kind of abuse is the tip of the iceberg.

In your case next time you’re at the store you should stay out of parent child interaction or you can find yourself charged with felony cruelty to children like this person –
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/03/crimesider/entry5284681.shtml

I hope you find some peace in your life and come to terms with your irrational hatred of children.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:57:07 +0000

bring it on girly/woman, I quadruple dare ya, but I get to pick out the soap though, and if you can;t do a good enough job, you will get the same

By: Zombettie

Zombettie — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:04:59 +0000

Mike I will gladly take you on any day of the week. Being a child of an extremely abusive mother, who to this day will not admit to even spanking me, even though several times as a young child I was smacked in the face for crying after she yelled at me. What was done to you and your people was wrong whether you see it or not, but man after reading that absolute crock that you posted I have a burning desire to give you your wish. I have a huge amount of respect for veterans, my stepfather is a retired ranger of 24 years. But that doesn’t mean I won’t stand up for what’s right I took on a vet 3 times my age at 17 in an airport showing no fear I’m not afraid to do it again.

By: Zombettie

Zombettie — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:46:14 +0000

Actually, when I was young, I’m talking 4 to 10 years old, if I cussed I had to take a bite of a bar of soap and chew it. I was allowed to spit it out after 3 chews but it was still terrible. I remember when I got older and refused to bite and chew or if it was a thick bar I’d have to bite down and my mom would pull it out and make it scrape shavings off on my teeth. I think making your children eat soap, or even wash their mouth’s out with it is terribly cruel. I’m 20 and I will NOT keep bar soap in my home, I never used it when living with my parents and would only ever use body wash in bottles. And btw any kid who had to wash their mouth out with soap knows that even if you spit it out, you still swallow some.

By: Garden Gnome

Garden Gnome — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:07:25 +0000

I absolutely agree. This is wrong wrong wrong. My stepsons are being forced by DYFS to live with their neglectful mother and her abusive boyfriend and we are going to be part of a very large custody battle very soon and this is one point I plan to bring up in court. The soap thing is a crock and soooo dangerous. It’s no different than hand sanitizer…kids in daycare where getting DRUNK on the stuff. People need to remember that kids are people too with real feelings and emotions and all these terrible acts of punishment only cause resentment and bad memories. I wouldn’t smack my husband for anything and he’s big enough to handle it. My stepsons are my world and are defenseless….NOTHING is gained thru physical abuse and intimidation. I applaud SuperNanny and the curator of this blog. If I can be of any help in the future don’t hesitate to contact me.

By: Lisi

Lisi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:34:54 +0000

Just saw this episode for the first time and very much agree with the post and the comments here. These parents were raising their kids terribly and then turning to various questionable (at best, and sometimes cruel) punishments to try to get some control. I agree it was awful to see the mother proudly smirking when administering the soap and later when talking about it. You could see she relished being able to have any control of her kid at that moment, but in a really troubling way. Because they let the kids run wild and lost control of them, they were turning to humiliating, hurtful punishments and confusing discipline with having power over them at those moments.

The thing that struck me the most, though, was the look on the son’s face when the soap was being squirted into his mouth. Anyone who didn’t see it, it’s not what you might think – not distress or sadness. It was more disturbing than that. There was a hardened look to him as he was getting punished this way – something of a steely resolve, and even a bit of a smirk there (but not a cheeky one). There seemed to be a certain pride that he was tough enough to take this treatment. I don’t mean pride in any positive way, it was a resentful, stoic manner to it. Like he wouldn’t let the mother ultimately have the power by knowing she could hurt him. I guess it was that hardened look that upset me the most – you could see in that how much this ‘discipline’ would backfire and just create something of a monster. Someone who was not only learning it’s OK to treat people that way, but who might one day want to take out his resentment on the world. And who would get self-esteem from proving himself to be tough. You could really imagine a later life of fighting and crime for someone learning to feel like this.

I’m just so glad they got Jo in. It does sadden me to think how many families this would be going on in that will never get help.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:59:29 +0000

It MUST be working if you have had to do it ONLY 3 times today. ;)

By: dreamraider16

dreamraider16 — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:46:56 +0000

Washing mouth out with soap? I have had to do this three times already TODAY to my son. Did i make my son EAT the soap? NO way. Was it liquid soap? NOPE. It was Ivory bar soap. My son’s punishment (and he is 10) is for lying and REPEATEDLY talking back. I have TRIED all other punishments – and they do not work. THIS has been working thus far.

NOW, the situation w/ the nanny people – saying “buttcrack”, I would not construe as a curse word. I would never let my kid play rated “M” video games and even some of the “T” ones are questionable. I, myself, don’t play those and I love the games. I do not let him watch horror films or rated R movies. He is probably the only child who’s not seen The Dark Knight because I will not allow it due to blatant violence. I do not feel that movie is a kids’ movie at ALL. The lines are too blurry between a very real fantasy world and real nowadays. JMO. I am constantly amazed that some parents let their children play these “M” games (Grand Theft Auto to name just one) and then they wonder why their kids act like they’re from the hood and use the language and steal and all.

I am a single mom – so I have to be BOTH parents as father wanted nothing to do w/ son since he was a baby. I am at the point that it’s do or die time, and my son knew consequences WAYYYY before choosing his specific infractions today. My son’s behavior recently is NOT a new thing, and is more of a challenge of wits for him to ‘one up’ mom. I have every intention of winning, and I will do it by whatever means necessary, within reason of course. There does come a point where talking gets you nowhere with a child such as mine when he gets this way. Otherwise, he is a sweet child and he is treated well. He has some heavy misconceptions about the way the world works, as to breaking rules, loyalty, and lying, etc. If I do not make every effort to stop this NOW, what’s it going to be when this kid is 14? I have tried to keep him in line since the get-go, and have only recently “upped” my efforts to include the soap punishment.

I cannot deal with people who have such great advice who have never either had kids 24/7, or never had a “high maintenance” child. Don’t tell me how to raise my child and I won’t tell you how to raise yours.

Love the “give the respect you hope to get” comment. Good luck with that – perhaps your child is different. I treat my child extremely well when he does well and I do not deal with bad behavior (and he knows it.) Does that stop him from misbehaving in such a manner that deserves or warrants corporal punishment? I WISH THAT IT DID BUT IT DOES NOT. We discuss his wrong choices and it is made clear that he is in control of his choices, not anyone else: he chooses the crime, he chose the punishment when he decided to do it. Taking things away or time out simply does nothing. He simply does not CARE – just looks at his punishment as price of admission to whatever infraction he did. I am not asking for sympathy, etc. – just simply stating that some children are in need of different punishments. What works for one may not work for another and so on…

Washing mouth out with soap is NOT child abuse, nor is spanking when needed, within reason. “Time out” and other yuppie punishments have never worked with my child. I am happy for those for whom it has worked, but not all children are the same, or respond to the same punishments, etc.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:58:13 +0000

Laurie, I can see your point and everyone has a right to their own oppinion. I for one, have fought for my freedom of speech and freedom of expression and have gotten injured for it. I have PTSD and probably never will have kids as I am way too old and old fashioned unlike someone else whom I will not mention. The generation we have today need to learn some manners. If you do the wrong thing, then you will have to suffer the consequences.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:02:56 +0000

Mike, It’s sad that you hate kids so much and its sad that your as immature as you are to dare other adults to wash your mouth out with soap. I believe you deserve compassion not soap since you are obviously messed up from your abusive childhood- it appears as if you never grew up-maybe you weren’t allowed to – instead you were forced to behave a certain way, not feel nor think for yourself. I pray you don’t ever have children How do you know that child crying in the store hasn’t been dragged all over shopping for 12 hrs and was tired of sitting in cart? Maybe the mom spent the entire day at the mall and was finishing up at Walmart. Parents abuse their children all the time by taking them to the mall for endless hours of sitting in a stroller or cart- Maybe the screaming child was done, or possibly in pain from teething or some other reason that deserves compassion instead of compliance. I will pray you either get some parenting education or never have children.

By: Kay kay

Kay kay — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:11:53 +0000

That is absolutly NOT ok! I watch supernanny myself… but seeing the way parents treat their kids makes my feel sorry fo the little ones. My mom said always said ” Here, we’ll clean your language up.” and she shoves soap into my mouth! I acctually hid from her and threw up in the bathroom and never told her. My mom used to call me a b…. slap me, and she yelled at me one time because I sneezed and sniffed.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:13:00 +0000

Personally, I feel they should bring back this practice. With the language the kids use today they ought to be glad that they don’t have to bite, chew, and swallow the whole bar or unscrew the cap on a bottle of Dawn dish soap insert bottle in their filthy mouth like a baby bottle, pinch their nose and make them swallow the whole bottle. I have had to do both for speaking my Native Language and I would do it again in a heart beat. As a matter of fact, I saw a lady in Wal-Mart that was threatening to spank her son with a belt if he didn’t stop screaming. I almost pulled my belt off right there in Wal-Mart, (if my pants hadn’t fallen off with as much weight I have lost) gave it to here and almost had to thank her right there in the store. When a parent tells the child to be quiet and the child refuses to listen, then I say bust his ass to get his attention and the rest of you can mind your own damn business or wash my mouth out with soap if you think you are big enough to try. I quadruple dare ya.

By: Justyn

Justyn — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:41:01 +0000

My mom was right, people should be required to get a parenting license to be a parent! We need one to go fishing, my goodness this is a clear example of why we need to teach basic parenting skills. The only thing the parent will achieve by putting soap in a child’s mouth is a fearful child!
Honetly, this kind of abuse just makes me sick……. I’ll stop there.

By: A Nanny Can Teach Us a Thing or Two at Zen-Mother

A Nanny Can Teach Us a Thing or Two at Zen-Mother — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:34:04 +0000

[...] recent post on an episode of Supernanny, the comments that ensued, and some comments on other blogs talking about this episode have got the [...]

By: DandelionGirl

DandelionGirl — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:08:51 +0000

No way would I give them liquid soap! The thought of those chemicals in my child horrifies me! We don’t even use liquid soap to wash our hands! It’s funny because we’ll have other kids over and they don’t even recognize our bar soap as soap! All they’ve ever used is liquid soap. It’s strange to think of a generation that doesn’t even recognize bar soap.
I like Supernanny. I don’t watch a lot of TV but occasionally I’ll watch this show. There are a lot of parents out there that weren’t parented well as children and who just don’t know how to be parents themselves. I think Jo (supernanny) is a great example of well-rounded parenting for them. It’s also nice to see a show that values family and the home.

Love your blog by the way! :)

By: Donna E

Donna E — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:48:53 +0000

My mom did wash our mouths out with soap when we were young if we said bad words,I only remember her doing it to me once,and it was a washing out,not a bite,chew swallow! I did see the show,and was very surprised by moms actions.I really appreciated Jo’s reaction & treatment of it.I agree though it is not OK at all!