Tony's
Note: As
much as I would have loved to invent this story, I am
not making this up...but I did add a few quotes, of
course. Heh heh...
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Lisa Whelchel (top right) shown
during her 15.01 minutes of fame during the impressively
horrible TV Show called "The Facts of Life" |
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The practice of "hot saucing"
a child's tongue as a method of discipline may seem
cruel to some parents, but those who regularly use the
punishment say it teaches their charges valuable and
long-lasting lessons.
Lisa Whelchel, who played Blair on the
incredibly bad, yet popular 1980s TV series Facts of
Life, is an advocate and practitioner of "hot saucing."
Whelchel, the author of Creative Correction: Extraordinary
Ideas for Everyday Discipline, says the practice worked
for her children when other disciplinary actions did
not.
"I used to smack all my kids around
quite a bit when my acting career fizzled after Facts.
But I found this incredible way to hurt them without
leaving a mark," said Whelchel. "It does sting
and the memory stays with them so that the next time
they may actually have some self-control and stop before
they lie or bite or kill or something like that,"
Whelchel said on ABC News' Good Morning America.
Whelchel says she would have never used
hot sauce to discipline her three children if it caused
lasting damage, because that can mean jail time, which
she is very familiar with from her heroin days. The
actress-turned-junkie-turned-home-schooling mom suggests
using just a dab of hot sauce, placing it on your finger,
then touching your finger to the child's tongue. "If
that doesn't work, just put it right in their eyes,"
she told Joan Lunden with a wink.
Boston family therapist Carleton Kendrick
says he is vehemently against hot saucing or corporal
punishment of any kind, and is directing law enforcement
to Whelchel's home to arrest her.
"There's no room for pain and humiliation
and fear in disciplining healthy children," Kendrick
said. "I think it's a rather barbaric practice
to say the least. Plus, she was a really bad actress,
so I have no sympathy for her."
[In a non-scientific ballot on ABCNEWS.com,
34 percent of voters said they feel hot saucing is an
acceptable form of discipline. Sixty-five percent of
voters said the practice of hot saucing was not. One
percent said they would pay $1000 to see Lisa Whelchel
fed live to teams of hungry Komodo Dragons in a pit.
More than 8,000 votes were cast in the online ballot.]
Whelchel says she's been aware for some
time that many people are strongly opposed to hot saucing,
(which was covered in The Washington Post earlier this
month) a form of discipline that's been around for decades,
but she says she believes in many different creative
ways to discipline, including this one. "Hacksaws
are cool, too, but like I said before, I can't be leaving
marks on the little sons of bitches."
"It's totally against popular opinion
in culture these days," Whelchel said. "I
prefer my child receive a small amount of pain from
my hand of love than to encounter a lot more pain in
life," she said.
Whelchel said hot saucing works better
than traditional spanking when it comes to offenses
related to the child's mouth.
"It's
a logical consequence. If you cause somebody pain, either
by the words you say ("Mommy was a bad actress!"),
by lying and not being a trustworthy person or by biting,
this is a logical consequence. It's your mouth that's
the offender," she said.
Practices at childcare centers in Michigan
and Georgia were called into question after it was discovered
that workers used Dave's Insanity Sauce hot sauce deep
inside ear canals to discipline some of the children.
Workers commented, "They listened right up after
that, I tell you what."
Kendrick says even parents who endorse
corporal punishment should think twice about using hot
sauce to discipline children because it could lead to
an investigation of child abuse in some states.
"The state of Virginia, for instance,
calls this practice bizarre and finds it an actionable
offense," Kendrick said.
Whelchel says she practiced hot saucing
from the time her children were in pre-school through
their 10th birthdays. Her children are now 12, 13, and
14 years old.
Whelchel says parents who turn to creative
punishments should always use common sense and make
sure the punishment is age-appropriate.
"Habanero sauce in the eyes of
infants is possibly out of bounds for me," said
Whelchel. "But I swear to God, they stop getting
lippy with you when you do it to them."
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