A woman has been urged to speak to her toddler about safety in the home after she started switching a plug socket on and off for fun – but the child’s dad believes there’s a better punishment
A mum has sparked a debate after sharing her partner’s ‘brutal’ punishment for their daughter’s dangerous behaviour.
She explained how their two-year-old daughter kept switching the TV on and off at the plug socket while her dad was watching football. Despite being told to stop, the toddler continued until the father threatened to take her Christmas toys away.
Speaking on Reddit, the mum said: “Our daughter is 27-months-old. She has loved Christmas and has been so great the whole festive period. Her favourite presents so far seem to be a big red car toy and two talking dolls.
“Today when I was upstairs she was downstairs with her dad watching the football and she kept switching the socket on and off at the wall (our sockets are apparently a weird shape/old so the socket protectors we bought to prevent the toddler switching them don’t fit). I could hear him telling her no over and over again.
“Finally he told her if she did it again he’d take away her big red car for a week. She did it again and I heard him say ‘right!’ and take her car away which obviously caused crying.” But the toddler went straight back to the switches – prompting her father to punish her again by taking her doll away for a week.
“I went down and moved something in front of the switch to prevent her getting at it. I personally think this punishment is silly and will make no sense to her,” she added. “A week also seems like a very long time for a 2.25 year old. Taking away her Christmas presents, I don’t know it just seems too much for her age and totally unrelated to the ‘crime’.”
Believing this punishment is “idiotic”, she asked Reddit users: “What do you think? What would you do? I would prevent her getting at stuff she’s not meant to or just remove her from the room if she kept doing it and tell her why.
“I wanted to give her doll back when she asked a few hours later but my partner says that would be undermining him. I don’t think she has the understanding yet for these events hours apart to make sense to her in that way. I think taking her to a more boring room for a bit would be a better way of teaching her.
“I genuinely don’t think she would connect that her not being allowed her toys the next week was because she pressed a switch last Wednesday.” While most users agreed the real issue isn’t the punishment but the dangers that could occur from the child playing with the switches, others sided with the mum.
One user said: “For what it’s worth, socket protectors can be more dangerous- in the UK sockets are designed to only open and engage with a plug with the top pin. Until that pin goes in, the lower terminals aren’t accessible. With the socket protectors, there’s a chance it can open up the lower terminals.”
Another user added: “I think you’re right. She’s two. Control the situation, don’t punish the child, it won’t achieve anything.”
Meanwhile, a third user chimed in: “Your partner doesn’t understand small kids’ brains. If a kid that young is doing something you don’t want them to do, you remove them from the situation. A completely unrelated consequence for a period of time they can’t comprehend is just him on a power trip. Now you get to figure out how your relationship looks when you disagree on a parenting principle. Good luck.”