To think if a child accidently pours Ribena over Coco Pops instead of milk, you don't make them eat it?

[AliceAbsolum]

Me, aged 8. That memory is causing a disproportionate amount of distress. It was a lot of Ribena and I felt so sick 🙁 Or maybe I'm being a wuss and it was a proportionate punishment?

Bit extreme! We all do clumsy things.

I wouldn’t have . No.

YANBU at all. That’s very abusive. Why should a child be punished for that at all? It was clearly an accident.

I think people are often harsher on children than they are on adults who do the same thing

That's a bloody unkind.thing to do..

The thought of giving any child Coco pops and ribena for breakfast should have been punishment enough.
However at 8you knew what you were doing.
So Yabu but so we're your parents.

Sorry I appreciate this has hurt you, but have you posted this before? If not then it has happened to more than one mnetter who may be able to help

I'm assuming this wasnt an isolated incident, just those you remember the most.

No that’s awful. But I had a mother who liked harsh painful punishments too so not to surprised by it.

Was it diluted or neat? If diluted maybe yes (but more in a spirit of adventure, see what it tastes like type thing). If neat then no.

I can remember pouring the water from the kettle into the jar of coffee, instead of the cups as a kid and being very relieved my mum wasn't cross with me.

However at 8you knew what you were doing. So Yabu

Eh? It was an accident.

Of course you don't make them eat it! A nasty cruel thing to do.

It kind of depends on the circumstances - child messing around with the ribena, given warnings that if they pour ribena over their breakfast they won't get anything else, then it might be reasonable.
Genuine accident, then literally forcing a child to eat it isn't OK.

I'm guessing if it is causing you distress it's part of a wider pattern of abuse though?

Why is it "abusive"? I agree it isn't pleasant. But why "abusive"?

No that is awful. We have all done something like picked up salt instead of sugar or similar, no need to punish for it.

My dad was the same. He forced food into my mouth on occasion when I didn’t like it. I think I vomited after one of these. I was aged 8-10. I can’t imagine doing it to my kids who are around that age. He was horrible in other ways and seems hurt that I’m not keen to be in his company.

I have an 8 year old who does mad stuff every so often, has accidents every now and then. Life goes on; you help them clear it up and teach them the right way to do it, you don't cause physical distress or harm because they did something daft.

I can remember being given a huge bowl of porridge and not being allowed to get down from the table until the bowl was empty, even though I was crying and gagging and it was cold and took more than an hour. It's one of the memories that has stuck in my mind as a child. Being forced to eat when you don't want to is cruel.

It was an accident, they were BU.

I would never make someone eat anything. Having said that, I might be a bit cross as I fail to see how you could do that by accident? Do you mean you knocked/spilt the Ribera over the cereal? Or were they in similar containers and you didn't notice that the milk was purple?

I don’t think it would be something I allowed to colour my adult to life. I wonder how the ‘accident’ occurred - and that perspective might have changed with time. A toddler would’ve been supervised. There wouldn’t usually be bottles of Ribena on a breakfast table. A glass of dilute Ribena isn’t going to do much harm and you’d have drunk it anyway. Some people choose to have liquids other than milk on cereal. Sounds like the child was messing around rather than an accident.

Eat what was in front of you would be a norm a few generations ago and many children were served cold, congealed leftovers to ensure the message reached home. Not nice but hardly life changing unless you wanted it to be.

I wouldn’t make them eat it but sometimes your child does something stupid that’s the final straw and I might lose my temper so it depends on how it was done. My DD broke up her dinner the other day and put it in her drink. After a day of being dictated to I shouted and threw the “smoothie”🤢 away

When I was a child ribena was really expensive (for us anyway) so maybe that was the reason for the punishment?

I think whether it was an appropriate punishment depends on the circumstances.

Was it concentrated?
Was it on purpose (did they think it was on purpose)?

It must’ve tasted terrible. But maybe the parent was frazzled or skint.

Is it any worse than being forced to eat massive chunks of pigs liver (cooked obvs but still beyond disgusting - and I have never been fussy about food) for school lunch at the age of five/six? We were not allowed to get down from the table until we'd eaten everything on our plates. Whether we liked what we were given, or not, was immaterial.

Maybe your parents disliked waste, OP?

Ribena is and was far more expensive than other squashes but if money was tight, a family wouldn’t be buying it anyway.

Seems a mean thing for a parent to do but I am also wondering how the pouring happened accidentally.