Princella Smith Calls Hot Sauce Discipline 'Creative' on Joy Behar Show

Joy Behar discussed both bullying and the Hot Sauce Mom on her HLN talk show on Tuesday, February 1st. What was weird about it was she was talking to Dr. Phil in the bullying segment, but when it came to the Hot Sauce Mom, she talked to Supernanny and Princella Smith.

Jessica Beagley, the Hot Sauce Mom, first appeared on the Dr. Phil show in mid-November 2010 where a video was shown of her forcing her adopted 7-year-old boy to swallow hot pepper sauce for lying and making him take a cold shower after he received 3 infractions in school. The 36-year-old Anchorage, Alaska mother was later charged with child abuse and pleaded "not guilty" in court on Friday, January 27th.

See the statement attached to the complaint filed against the Hot Sauce Mom here, which describes the punishment as "unreasonable."

Behar talked to Jo Frost, star of Supernanny and author of 3 books on childcare, who believes in being firm with children but felt that the cold shower and hot pepper sauce methods don't accomplish anything other than doing a "humongous" amount of damage to the parent/child relationship. "And, the reality is," Frost said, "it's a moral issue in raising your children to do the right thing." Joy Behar replied: "It's a moral issue. Exactly. It's a moral issue to not abuse your children."

Most rational people will, or should, agree that forcing a child to swallow hot sauce is just plain evil. But, Joy's next guest was one of those who don't agree. Conservative commentator, Princella Smith thought that the Hot Sauce Mom was being "creative" in her choice of discipline. Princella doesn't see anything wrong with corporal punishment having been raised by her own parents in that manner: "I think, well, I know what my parents tried to teach us was that there are consequences to our actions," Princella explained: "I wasn't spanked every time I did something wrong, but I do believe that you know, with every child, there's a different level of discipline."

She clearly felt that corporal punishment had some hand (pardon the pun) in her success in life: "Ok, I'm 27 years old," she said, I've run for congress. I'm a black republican. I'm very opinionated. I'm very healthy. I love my parents. Nothing about them spanking me didn't teach me to think for myself; as a matter of fact, both of them are very upstanding citizens who did lead by example. But the truth of the matter is, sometimes, I needed a little heat on my butt and I thank God to this day that I was prevented from a lot the mistakes ..."

As for the Hot Sauce Mom, Princella said "... God bless her. I don't think I would do that with my kids, but creative punishment is sometimes necessary."

Joy Behar wondered how the mother would like someone to put hot sauce down her throat, but Princella said "to my understanding of the story, she didn't pour it down his throat. She put it on his tongue. A 7-year-old boy lying and that's very serious Joy. When these kids -- you know, we think that stuff's cute when they're young, and then they become teenagers, they become out of control. I think to arrest this mother was a bit extreme."

It's interesting to note that many people who have been subjected to corporal discipline as children defend it when they are adults. Some, like Princella Smith, go so far as to thank their parents for doing it. I was subjected to a lot of "corporal punishment" in my childhood at home, and, sorry, Princella, it really was abuse. My parents were usually angry and out of control when they went off and decked one of us. Ironically, in my father's more calm moments, he used his belt, not fists or open-handed smacks, I also saw corporal punishment inflicted on children at school and, in my opinion, it was abuse too, often accompanied by demeaning browbeating. The other thing was to make you eat the food they gave you even if it made you sick. The only thing this stuff taught me was that no one really cared if I got sick or not.

I've never really seen someone like Princella explain exactly why the discipline she experienced didn't cross the line into abuse.

I'd think as an adult if you could be charged with assault if you hit another adult or menaced another adult, to force that person to do something that he or she didn't want to do, then certainly, if you are doing it to a defenseless child, it's not only wrong, you should be arrested. Remember, the law defines assault as "any unwanted touch."

Source: Joy Behar Show (2/1/2011)