Parenting

Parents are Beating Up Kids' Stuffed Animals To Get Them to Eat & People Are Divided

ParentingPublished Jun 26, 2019
By Genny Glassman
parents are beating kids' stuffed animalsTwitter/rudyhernandez_

No matter what parents do, some kids go through a phase where they refuse to eat or suddenly become extremely picky eaters. It's a stage that can be maddening, but a new viral trend of how parents are getting their little ones to eat is seriously crossing the line. In these disturbing videos, parents are scaring their kids into taking bites of food they rejected by beating their stuffed animals as a way to coerce them. Although some might see it as a lighthearted way to get their picky eaters to chow down, others are saying the footage is horrifying and seems like the parent is threatening their kids if they don't eat.

The viral videos mostly start out in a similar fashion: parents offering their child a spoonful of food.

Though it's not clear how the new trend started, one viral video on Twitter has received a lot of attention. The video depicts the uncle of a toddler trying to get him to eat. Uninterested, the boy refuses, which is when the man picks up a Mickey Mouse doll and pummels the toy to show his nephew the consequences of what happens Mickey refuses to eat. Unfortunately, the trick worked and the boy accepted the next spoonful of food.

The video has since been liked more than 300,000 times and has been retweeted more than 100,000, with many people praising the uncle and laughing at the "hysterical" footage.

Others created their own videos but the reaction has been split; some love them whereas others think they are "abusive."

In a similar video posted by a mom on Facebook that has been shared more than 1 million times, the reaction has varied from full-on laughter to deep disgust.

"Anyone with kids that's doing this is in my eyes no kind of parent at all," one commenter wrote. "This is traumatizing for the child you're leading them to believe if they don't eat that you as the parent are going to beat them. The parents need a visit from child protective service. If I was to see this kind of parenting in public rest assured I would have a few choice words for you."

"So I guess you rather be feared than respected," another woman wrote. 

"Pure evil," one woman added. "Now don’t discipline the kid when he beats someone’s head in when he’s older cuz they didn’t do what he wanted."

One dad even got so riled up he posted his own now viral response to the violent trend.

Christopher Duett saw the viral videos online and was shocked. The dad of two young boys from Orlando, Florida, told Buzzfeed News he wanted to "show that there are other effective methods to having a child comply without the potential of causing any damage to their emotional development." That is why he made a video of his own feeding his 2-year-old son, Warren, without resorting to violence.

In the video the dad posted to Twitter, it starts off similarly to the others. He offers food to his son, who refuses to take a bite of a chip. But this time instead of offering it to the stuffed penguin that sat beside them and beating it when it "refused," he makes it seem as if the penguin likes eating the chip. When he goes back to offer his son a bite again, the boy readily agrees.

"Watch this, penguin wants some, oh penguin likes it," he says in the video.

Duett added that he'd never tried the viral method of encouragement that the other videos showed, but explained that he posted his alternative technique because "I just wanted parents who were influenced by the other video to consider the approach that I used.

"I couldn’t understand why so many people could find such a tactic humorous or acceptable behavior for a parent to engage in towards a young child," he said.

"The initial videos are problematic because they create the illusion of effectiveness," he continued. "But what’s going on behind the scenes of that is that a child of that age is laying the foundation for learning empathy and emotional association and they are observing behaviors and will mimic them.

"Parents will undoubtedly watch those videos and try what they’ve seen to have their children comply, but ... it’s potentially harmful to the child’s emotional development and creates an excuse for parents to engage in counterproductive parenting techniques," he said.

Duett's tender response has received praise from fellow moms and dads.

"Wow it's amazing what an extra five minutes of clam, patient, positive reinforcement can do! And look, your kid isn't terrified and he doesn't hate you!" one woman wrote in the thread.

"Yes!!! Positive reinforcement around eating is important," added another woman. "No child should have to access their fight/flight response when eating ... no one should."

The dad later credited his clear thinking to his wife. "Also I’m getting a lot of attention and credit for this, though this should be the standard and not the exception," he tweeted. "Truth be told, my wife and I are privileged to raise our kids together. Without my partnership with her, I wouldn’t be as good of a man I am now. Be good to your kids!"

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