Ready for some more extreme parenting? This week, Colorado father, Joseph Gonzalez, made his son, Jose, carry a sign that tells the world he's a "thief." After Jose stole $100 from a relative's wallet, Gonzalez said the 12-year-old will be spending a large portion of his spring break holding the sign on a street corner in Denver.
Gonzalez chose the location because it is located near his place of work, a local pawn shop, where he can keep an eye on the boy. "I am a thief. I took money from a family member," reads the sign Jose has to hold.
This more than questionable method seems to be a growing trend among parents looking to discipline their kids. As seen in the video below, just last month Tennessee teen, Natia Wade, was also made to stand on a local corner, holding a sign that read "I steal from my family" after she took her mother's debit card. And last year, 15-year-old Florida boy James Mond III was forced to stand outside, wearing a sign that read "I did 4 questions on my FCAT and said I wasn't going to do it … GPA 1.22 … honk if I need [an] education," after his parents got fed up with his low grades.
So, does public punishment actually work? Personally, I think it's a terrible disciplinary solution. Other than needlessly shaming and humiliating the child, what exactly is the purpose of doing this? Do the kids really learn why what they're doing is wrong? Do the parents even bother to try and figure out why they're doing it? It seems like the only thing this punishment succeeds in doing is making the kids feel bad about themselves, not because of what they did, but because they are being purposely degraded by their own parents!
Can you imagine how damaging that it to these children's psyches, especially teens that are at a crucial and vulnerable age? Do we not remember that this is the day and age when kids have such low self-esteem that they're going on YouTube to ask if they're pretty?
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Kids should, of course, be punished when they have done something wrong. But, I strongly believe the punishment needs to be an effective one that actually fits the crime. In Gonzalez's case, it was Jose's first time ever stealing. So why did he immediately have to resort to this medieval, tough love concept of discipline instead of trying something less severe?
Even if a child has a continuous behavior problem — like Mond III with the low GPA– does tossing your kid on the street really solve anything? Did holding that sign really make him better at math? What if he was genuinely struggling and just didn't know how to ask for help? I doubt he wanted to go to his mom after that punishment. Not to mention that dumping your child on a street corner isn't very safe, particularly since some of these kids are so young. I mean, in some cases, the adolescents were forced to stand there for hours.
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I only have one thing to say to those parents and others that think this form of discipline is acceptable: Go stand on the side of a road, wearing a sign that says "I like to humiliate my children." Then get back to me.
Watch Natia Wade holding the sign below:
Do you agree or disagree with this type of punishment?
Image via Denver Post.com
