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Hunger - a tool of punishment for your child

Classik

Classik

Member
Should parents ever try this? Not starvation, but letting a kid miss a meal, as a tool of punishment.


My parents never did this: they preferred the cane...
 
Never.

That was a form of punishment for me. To deprive someone of a basic need to eat is in humane.
I would never punish my kids that way. I do concede wwjd's point though.
 
They've tried it in school when students appeared to the dinning. They miss the meal. No one to blame, because they violated the time.

I think coaches attempt such: never arrive late to lunch
 
Classik said:
They've tried it in school when students appeared to the dinning. They miss the meal. No one to blame, because they violated the time.

I think coaches attempt such: never arrive late to lunch
Click to expand...
Do you not think that is different from parents doing it?
 
It's good for a child to experience hunger.

It's not going to harm them. (So long as they have a normal endocrine system)

But it goes beyond just food.
They need to hunger for the things in life. We, as parents, enjoy doing things for them... sometimes too much.

That hunger for a first car, that hunger for college education, the hunger for a home of their own and a family of their own....all that stems from wanting video games that they can't have or a meal they can't have.

It teaching....shaping...and training.

And I know that it seems cruel.
But it isn't.

And where at times I want to step in and do for my son...I can't. It isn't good for him. He needs to mature. He needs to build his self confidence from accomplishing difficult tasks. Because that hunger and self confidence will one day support and provide for his family. He has to become a man.

And I'm struggling with this myself at the moment. I want to step in and give him the things that he wants. And I can license it easily in 20 different ways...it's actually soul poison. And I will be the one poisoning my own son by doing it. So I must sit back and only encourage him. Offer advice unsolicited. (Licensed by parent/child relationship)
Cajole him and chide him into courses of actions that will be to his benefit.

And he can feed himself...and will feed himself....and feed others.
 
JohnDB said:
It's good for a child to experience hunger.

It's not going to harm them. (So long as they have a normal endocrine system)

But it goes beyond just food.
They need to hunger for the things in life. We, as parents, enjoy doing things for them... sometimes too much.

That hunger for a first car, that hunger for college education, the hunger for a home of their own and a family of their own....all that stems from wanting video games that they can't have or a meal they can't have.

It teaching....shaping...and training.

And I know that it seems cruel.
But it isn't.

And where at times I want to step in and do for my son...I can't. It isn't good for him. He needs to mature. He needs to build his self confidence from accomplishing difficult tasks. Because that hunger and self confidence will one day support and provide for his family. He has to become a man.

And I'm struggling with this myself at the moment. I want to step in and give him the things that he wants. And I can license it easily in 20 different ways...it's actually soul poison. And I will be the one poisoning my own son by doing it. So I must sit back and only encourage him. Offer advice unsolicited. (Licensed by parent/child relationship)
Cajole him and chide him into courses of actions that will be to his benefit.

And he can feed himself...and will feed himself....and feed others.
Click to expand...
That is well and good when your child can start doing things for themselves. Yes I agree that it is good when a child is old enough to not only make their choices but be able to stand by them and reap the rewards or cope with the consequences. I have been going the same root with my eldest for the last 4 years since he was 15.

But I have to say punishing a child with hunger is not right, particularly at a young age. My experiences tell me that, how can one say it's ok to send a 5 year old to bed with no tea because they got dirt on their school uniform. I could recite countless example of this and it was not clever and not funny.
 
It's teaching a Biblical principle in the right circumstances.

"The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." (2 Thess 3:10 NIV)

I've seen withholding a meal applied in situations of irresponsibility on the part of the kid, such as not doing his chores because he was lazy or just wanted to do something fun instead, not showing up when he knew it was meal time, etc. The teaching in 2nd Thessolonians is all about taking responsibility for the things that need to be done in life, and if not being able to eat when a person is irresponsible was good for the early Christians, I think it's good for our kids to learn this Biblical lesson too.
 
Wrg1405 said:
That is well and good when your child can start doing things for themselves. Yes I agree that it is good when a child is old enough to not only make their choices but be able to stand by them and reap the rewards or cope with the consequences. I have been going the same root with my eldest for the last 4 years since he was 15.

But I have to say punishing a child with hunger is not right, particularly at a young age. My experiences tell me that, how can one say it's ok to send a 5 year old to bed with no tea because they got dirt on their school uniform. I could recite countless example of this and it was not clever and not funny.
Click to expand...
OK....ummmm
I wasn't suggesting that it is OK to abuse/neglect a child.
What I was speaking of was to love them.
 
JohnDB said:
OK....ummmm
I wasn't suggesting that it is OK to abuse/neglect a child.
What I was speaking of was to love them.
Click to expand...
I know you wasn't and I did agree with you I terms that we get to a stage that we have to step back and let our kids make their own choices. I like you have said to my kids "I will over my advice should you want me to but you ultimately have to make your own decisions and stand by them and if you get it wrong I'll still help you"

I'm sorry if you felt I was suggesting that you were suggesting it is ok to abuse/neglect a child, I truly wasn't suggesting that.

What I am trying to say is that punishing your child by withdrawing the basic need of food is wrong.
If my kids are out somewhere we let them know what time tea is and this is the time they need to be home. Now if they don't come home at that time because they have lost track of time for whatever reason I would never punish them by saying "no tea for you" I would invoke a different punishment. It may be for every 5 minutes late you are you have to be home 15 minutes earlier next time your out, or tomorrow you can't go out an play football.

I really could imagine God punishing us by withdrawing our basic need for food?
 
Obadiah said:
It's teaching a Biblical principle in the right circumstances.

"The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." (2 Thess 3:10 NIV)

I've seen withholding a meal applied in situations of irresponsibility on the part of the kid, such as not doing his chores because he was lazy or just wanted to do something fun instead, not showing up when he knew it was meal time, etc. The teaching in 2nd Thessolonians is all about taking responsibility for the things that need to be done in life, and if not being able to eat when a person is irresponsible was good for the early Christians, I think it's good for our kids to learn this Biblical lesson too.
Click to expand...
A child doesn't work. This passage is talking about adults.
 
Wrg1405 said:
I know you wasn't and I did agree with you I terms that we get to a stage that we have to step back and let our kids make their own choices. I like you have said to my kids "I will over my advice should you want me to but you ultimately have to make your own decisions and stand by them and if you get it wrong I'll still help you"

I'm sorry if you felt I was suggesting that you were suggesting it is ok to abuse/neglect a child, I truly wasn't suggesting that.

What I am trying to say is that punishing your child by withdrawing the basic need of food is wrong.
If my kids are out somewhere we let them know what time tea is and this is the time they need to be home. Now if they don't come home at that time because they have lost track of time for whatever reason I would never punish them by saying "no tea for you" I would invoke a different punishment. It may be for every 5 minutes late you are you have to be home 15 minutes earlier next time your out, or tomorrow you can't go out an play football.

I really could imagine God punishing us by withdrawing our basic need for food?
Click to expand...
God does...its called famine.
 
We have asked our kids to experience what it is like to be hungry. At school they used raise a bit of money at lunch time for just eating a bowl of soup so they would know what it's like to feel hungry.
 
I really could imagine God punishing us by withdrawing our basic need for food?

Sorry I meant to say "I really could not imagine God punishing us by withdrawing our basic need for food"

Jesus himself said he would meet all our needs

Matthew 6:25-32

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
 
OK
A farmer in Afghanistan can grow one crop a year.

If he grows wheat and is successful (big if there) he will get roughly $50 profit.

If this same farmer instead grows poppy and makes opium he will clear $300.

That's the problem with the world's food supply in most areas.
 
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