Unreasonable punishment to force a child to eat cereal covered in ribena?

[AliceScarlett]

That's unreasonably harsh right? Poured it over instead of milk, but why not just throw it away and start again?
Then mocked when started crying because of nausea.
Is this a reasonable punishment for wasting food and then not being able to eat it?

Sorry, odd thread, just can't get my head around it.

That right there is child abuse it is emotional abuse mental abuse as things like that never leave a child as im due my little girl in september i have encounted many unusual stories on here but none like this

cruel and fucked up imo

That's abusive behaviour.

If one of my pupils reported that to me I'd be filling in a cp form and pressing it into my ht's hand before I did much else.

((((((((((((())))))))))))))))) Massive hug. I'm sorry but your mum was a cruel and wicked women. Has this suddenly came into your memory or is it something that's always been there. Was this cruelty on going

Have you told anyone IRL

My parents were assholes too. Massive hug from me.

It's abuse.

some weird shit going on anyway

Not sure I would punish a child of 6 at all for this - I might lose my temper and snap at them in the moment - at most ration their Ribena that week (i.e. just not buy any more that week). People have funny ideas about discipline and some people who have no control anywhere else in their lives like to take it out on small children.

OMG I have accidently poured orange or apple juice on ds's cereal before. I just threw it away! DS2 rarely has anything on his cereal anyway and ds2 has milk, but juice on cereal yeuk!

Definately abuse, all about control and power.

Have you had any help with the memories of this? Could you ask your gp? If it is still haunting you then you really need help to get it behind you and realise you are not that little girl any more and dont need to accept abuse from anyone ever again.

Just to clarify it was neat and it was an accident. Thank you everyone for replying. You might know when you think something doesn't seem right but because you're so close to it you can't get a balanced perspective?

I do have therapy and have spoken about it, today actually. Made me feel awful afterwards. It's hard not to think I'm being pathetic and making a big deal out of it, but I know I'm entitled to my emotions.
It's always been something I've remembered, I'm not sure why it is in my head more recently. I have this huge thing about force feeding, it absolutely freaks me out. I hate it when you have to swallow or you won't be able to breathe because someone is holding your nose and mouth shut. Really traumatic. At 6 I could have skwirmed away though couldn't I?

Many of us are upset and affected just reading about your experience OP, so it's not surprising that this has stuck with you. Think about that little girl - if it was not you there is no way you would blame her for not squirming away. That little girl needs your compassion.

That must have been so awful, you poor thing.

PMd you Alice.

Sorry if I've upset anyone.

I think if I'd have squirmed away much worse would have befallen me, so, fear can freeze you I guess.

Sounds like you're still blaming yourself - you have not upset anyone, there was nothing a six year old could/should have done in this situation, your mum should have acted like a decent human being. She was the adult, you were a child.

I'm surprised some posters on this thread would punish their children for doing this tbh. I would just throw it away and make them another bowl myself with milk.

I'm shocked to read someone would 'let her go hungry til lunch' especially if it was an accident

Op what happened to you was horrible, I believe the 'wasting food' hang ups probably left over from rationing is contributing to the obesity crisis. Making a child sit at the table til they have eaten a meal they clearly hate is only going to produce one outcome.. An aversion to the food in question, and resentment, all because of a plate of fucking food.

Ollie I was thinking absolute best case scenario if let's say a child kept deliberately pouring Ribena on their cereal after being asked not to, then complaining that they didn't like it, I was also imagining those little cartons of ready to drink Ribena. I said in that situation I'd probably remove iPad time not make them eat it.

Posted too soon, it's quite clear from ops subsequent posts that it wasn't a situation like that and that it was horribly bad

Horribly abusive.

Alice as you admitted in your next post there is no way a terrified child would have 'squirmed' away from a parent holding her nose to make her eat something and no doubt towering over her sitting at a table. Fear does a lot to you and freezing up is perfectly natural. Plus of course many abusers give 'extra' punishment if you try to escape first time. Its a no win situation. There was no way out of 'punishment' of some sort it was all about controlling you, you didnt have a choice.

Take a deep breath and give that 6yr old a big 'hug' and tell her it wasnt her fault, it wasnt deserved and the adult was 100% to blame and 100% wrong.

Alice,

It sounds like you are reflecting on things that happened in your childhood and maybe you are coming to terms with the possibility that some things were very questionable. In my opinion, what happened when you were six was wrong

So sorry this has happened to you.
I went through similar with my mother, not physically forced but like a previous poster said, sitting at the table for hours crying into a plate of whatever vile food she had made
I remember going to bed starving hungry and my dad sneaking me up a sandwich
The feeling of sitting alone in my room feeling ashamed of having to eat the sandwich will never leave me
He my kids don't like what I've made I will make them something else
I know it's frowned upon on here but there's no harm in knocking up a quick baked potato and cheese if they don't like the casserole for instance
No-one should be forced to eat something they genuinely don't like and a child should never be made to go hungry deliberately

I think I should head over to the stately homes thread.

She called me yesterday and it was really difficult to be civil. I know she lacked the skills and emotional intelligence to bring me up in an appropriate way and there are complicated reasons why she did what she did (and didn't LTB) but I just wanted to hang up, so angry. But she's elderly and not very bright and wouldn't remember and urgh.

Do you have your own kids Alice? I've found that as my children have grown up I've sort of relived bits of my childhood because I've thought about things that happened and thought that i could never imagine being so cruel to my own kids. It really hammers it home and affects how you feel about them. I've also felt resentful that my dad failed to protect me.

Oh God Alice that's horrible. The humiliation is the worst bit. I was forced to eat throughout my childhood (chronically underweight as a child) and it's made me quite scared of food. I never ever make ds eat when he says he's full.

Overy same memories of not being allowed down from the dinner table, on my own and crying.

(I kind of get it in my parents situation if Dr's are telling you to get some weight on your child you're going to do what you can.)

I think the fact that you are still so upset by it now years later is proof that it was not a reasonable punishment.