Disciplining children is an everyday part of being a parent. As developing human beings, infants and toddlers need gentle encouragement in order to progress in their development.
However, some parents can take bizarre and unconventional measures in this process.
WATCH:
In a video posted on the “Indisputable with Dr Rashad Richey” YouTube channel, an American couple who both happen to be police officers, are accused of handcuffing and jailing their three-year-old over a “potty issue”.
The couple can be seen holding their children and smiling broadly at the camera. However, things may not have been as rosy in their household as they appear.
According to “Daytona Beach News-Journal” reports, the youngster was having problems toilet training and was hauled to the Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety Department on two consecutive days in October 2022 and held in prison.
The father, Michael Schoenbrod, was quoted as telling a social worker, “He was crying. I was getting the response I expected from him.”
Schoenbrod claimed that, as a result, the youngster swore never to soil his pants again. Cases were opened against both the boy’s guardians, without more information disclosed by the court.
“As members of law enforcement serving in a position of massive public trust, should there not be an investigation from the police department?” asked Dr Richey.
“If someone is willing to lock up a three-year-old child and stand by that decision, what do you think these individuals are willing to do to you?” Rickey asked.
Instilling fear is an ineffective and potentially traumatising way of disciplining children, according to trauma specialist Dr Gabor Mate.
In his book, “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture,” the physician wrote that trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens internally as a result.
In an interview with “ The Sun Magazine” Dr Mate was quoted as saying, “When you say to the three-year-old, ‘If you don’t behave, you’ll go sit in the corner,’ you’re threatening to take away the thing that children are most afraid of losing: the adult’s presence.
“It will get the child to behave, but what are you doing for his or her long-term sense of security and belonging and ease In the world? What are you doing for the child’s sense of what a relationship is all about? You’re sending a message that relationships are conditional on pleasing others.”
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