A grisly example of bad parenting has finally made the news after three months of silence. Back in October of 2010, Norwegian Yasmin Chaudhry murdered her 1-year-old baby girl in a bucket of water for failing to obey her. Worse, she aired the entire incident on Skype for her British internet boyfriend to watch. Yasmin initially told paramedics — which she at least called — that her child slipped and fell into the bucket. It was later revealed she and her boyfriend supposedly plotted the dunking as a disciplinary method and then accidentally drowned the child. The “mother” has been in custody since shortly after the crime and her surviving 5-year-old boy has been in protective custody as well. Now January 2012, the British man who witnessed the crime may be extradited, reported the UK Huffington Post, because Yasmin claims the water punishment was his idea. He “saw it on the internet.” Yasmin is being held until February 4, 2012. There is no word on her sentencing or charges.
This incident is one of many parenting related deaths that have cropped up in the news as of late. While parents avidly debate whether a simple spanking is child abuse, other misled guardians are literally killing their children in an attempt to raise them right. As a mother I find this a frightening development, and proof that educational childcare programs are needed worldwide.
Water punishment in particular has already come to the forefront of disciplinary debates after Anchorage woman, Jessica Beagley, coined “hot sauce mom,” aired videos of herself on Dr. Phil forcing her adopted, 8-year-old son into a cold shower after making him drink hot sauce for lying. Beagley and Yasmin are not the only parents out there that have used the old military punishment on children. Cold showers and other forms of water punishment guides for children are plentiful on the Internet, available for parents that have tried everything else.
The question is, is a cold shower abuse? What about a dunk in a bucket of water? Are these effective methods of discipline? This is where parents need to see the line between punishment and discipline, as they are indeed not the same thing. An effective disciplinary method teaches your child why a behavior is wrong while preventing a repeat performance. A punishment simply creates a fear of repeating the action, and can cause harm, or even death as you can see. Many punishments veer dangerously into the realm of child abuse. New parents should be weary of trusting everything the Internet calls “good parenting.” Dead kids don’t misbehave, this is true, but they don’t become well-adjusted adults either, or adults at all for that matter.