An 8-year-old Chinese boy from Hunan province in central China was allegedly forced to watch television all night by his parents as punishment for not finishing his homework and watching too much TV.
The boy’s parents asked him to finish his homework and go to bed at 8:30 p.m when they left their home, but instead of complying, the boy chose to watch TV instead of doing his chores or taking a shower.
The time stamp on still images of CCTV footage from the family’s home indicates the incident took place on 11 Nov.
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When the parents got home, the boy immediately went to bed, but his parents noticed that he had not finished his homework and dragged him into the living room to punish him. He was forced to stay up all night watching TV, and while he seemed relaxed at first, he started crying around 10am.
He tried to sneak back to his room to sleep, but his mother caught him and forced him back to the couch to watch more television. His parents took turns looking after the boy, who was only allowed to sleep at 5 in the morning
The story ignited a discussion on Chinese social media, with some commentators criticizing the parents’ punishment and others sharing similar experiences.
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One user commented: “I had a similar experience. After taking our three-year-old son, who is a fan of KFC, to eat hamburgers and chicken for three days, his enthusiasm is now gone.”
“The punishment was too harsh, and what if the boy starts to get used to staying up late?” someone else wrote.
Harsh parenting – sometimes referred to as tiger parenting – is seen by some parents as a way of raising their children to become model citizens.
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Tiger parenting can also continue even after adulthood. A 22-year-old woman’s story went viral in June after she revealed that her mother is making her take a breathalyzer test every time she comes home from a night out with friends.
While having tiger parents can sometimes lead to success later in lifea group of researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium found that a strict parenting environment could manifest depression later in a child’s life.
Featured image via 趣事大赏
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