Is making a child eat Soap for 5 min child abuse?

Answer 1

Oh, that is such a loaded question. This question in and of itself could start a war, I'm sure. Here's MY answer....

I would think it depends on SO many things. Why did you make the child eat soap? How often do you do this to them? Was there a lesson to be learned, or were you just doing this to them because you can? Is the soap toxic?

If you look at the questions I just asked, it's easy to see how simple it is to cross the line into child abuse. If you were, for example, making your child eat soap for 5 minutes because they refused to stop cussing, which has been a stereo-tpyical parenting manuever, and they were taught a lesson and it didnt happen again, then I'd say it's fine. However, if everytime they utter anything even slightly wrong they get a bar of Dial shoved down their throat, I'd say that's child abuse.

There's a lot of things to take into consideration with this, and everyone is going to have a different opinion. A good rule of thumb might be to think about how you'd feel if someone were doing that to you, and whether or not it's going to benefit the child in the long run, or just scar them. If the answer to both those questions is that you'd hate it if someone were doing that to you, and it wont really benefit the child in any way, don't do it. Find a more productive and less nasty way of teaching your child a lesson.