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A Chinese couple recently sparked controversy online
after punishing their child for watching too much television by making
him stay up all night watching TV.
It’s a problem most modern parents – myself included – deal with at some
point. Kids today love looking at screens, be they big or small, and
unless you do something about it, they become little addicts. And it’s
up to parents to either prevent that from happening or manage screen
time to ensure they actually do something else. Anyway, this story is
about a couple of parents who decided that more TV was actually the way
to wean their son off watching TV. So they made him stay up all night
watching whatever he wanted.
Before going out, the couple, who hail from China’s Hunan province,
reportedly asked their 8-year-old son to finish his homework and be in
bed at 8:30. But when they returned later that night they found him on
the sofa watching TV even though it was passed his bedtime. They also
learned that he had not done his homework, so they decided to teach him
a lesson.
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According to the home CCTV footage that recently went viral on Chinese
social media, the events unfolded on the night of November 11. When the
parents came home, the boy can be seen going into the bedroom, but upon
checking the TV and his notebooks, the couple quickly realize what’s
going on and drag him back into the living room.
The boy actually gets more than the verbal scolding he was probably
expecting. Instead of sending him back to his room and saving his
punishment for the following days, his parents actually turn on the TV
and tell him to keep watching his favorite programs. He actually looks
relaxed at first, but as the hours go by, you can see him struggle to
stay awake.
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This form of punishment has attracted the parents a fair bit of
criticism online, with some calling it a form of abuse. The video shows
the boy repeatedly trying to go to his room to sleep, only to be turned
back by his mother and made to watch more TV. At around 2 a.m., he can
be seen crying and pleading with his mother to be allowed to sleep, but
to no avail.
More than once, the boy can be seen falling asleep on the couch, only to
be nudged awake by his mother or father and forced to watch more
television. According to the CCTV timestamp, the boy was only allowed to
finally go to sleep at around 5 in the morning.
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Although the boy may have been taught a lesson and will probably avoid
the TV for a while, many on social media wondered if it was worth it.
Then again, tough parenting, known as ‘tiger parenting‘ in China, has
been in the news a few times over the years, and many parents swear by
it.
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