The TV celebrity chef gave his daughter chilli-rubbed apple slices after bad behaviour – but it is unwise for non-professionals to make their cooking a form of child cruelty
Jamie Oliver has revealed that on occasion he likes to punish his children through the medium of food, confessing that he once rubbed a scotch bonnet chilli on some apple slices before giving them to his daughter, in reprisal for some unspecified insubordination. “It worked a treat,” he said, implying that for him, revenge is a dish best served hot.
The Daily Mail tried to use science to make this punishment sound more like a form of torture (“Scotch bonnets have a rating of 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale”), but really, it’s more of an unpleasant prank. His wife told him never to do it again, so he’s probably learned a lesson, at least.
There are many obvious reasons why one shouldn’t use food to punish children, but the main one is this: it creates an atmosphere in which your cooking can be regarded as a form of child cruelty. I don’t want my kids to think there’s such a thing as “good food” and “bad food”, because sometimes I give them bad food.
Only the other day I presented my children with a meal that didn’t turn out as I had planned: undercooked, but also a little burnt – a failed experiment. But I didn’t apologise for it. I didn’t have to say: “It’s not a punishment, it just tastes like one.” I pretended it was supposed to smell like that, then I threw mine away when they weren’t looking.
I would never seek to influence behaviour through food. The meals I serve are meant to send one message and one message only to my children: life ain’t fair, and if you don’t like it, there’s cereal.
I actually think I might try to fob them off with apples rubbed in chilli tonight. It is simple and quick to prepare and it sounds pretty healthy. I can probably convince them it’s considered a delicacy somewhere on the planet. Who knows? Maybe it is. In any case, they won’t think it’s because they did something wrong.
Opinion by Tim Dowling
From HERE.
254 Readers' Comments HERE.
Do you agree with Tim Dowling? Do you agree with any of the online comments by the readers of The Guardian?
I don't really know whether have to agree or disagree with Jamie's way of punishment. I don't really think of it as a punishment if his children can handle the spiciness of chillis. Of course, chilli-marinated apple is very strange and weird and no one in the whole world with the right mind would eat it, but if it has no side effect then just try it for a bite. Jamie Oliver as the high top celebrity chef must have known the good and the bad effect that could happen. He wouldn't just give any bad food that can cause his children sick. So, I think it's okay for him to teach his children that way, but I think it would be better if he could just tell and show them what's the problem with their actions and words and how they can correct their faults and be a better person.
ReplyDeleteAccording to ChildHelp organization, child cruelty/abuse is defined as ‘when a parent, whether through action or failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child.’ This definition itself leaves a wide array of what kinds acts could be considered abusive. While majority of the commenters of the article criticizes Jamie for his ‘abusive’ actions, I can’t say I agree with them. The form of punishment he chose seemed childish to me.
ReplyDeleteIf he had mixed the Scotch Bonnets into the apples and/or food constantly as a form of punishment, perhaps it could be seen as child abuse then. But with the given information, the only negative impact for the daughter I see is her hatred for apples and spicy food. While I don’t condemn him for his odd form of disclipine, I don’t think he should stick to this kind of punishment nor should he have shared this tip as a public figure. Not only can it tarnish his reputation, but I do not think this form of punishment should be practiced. Perhaps he should jus stick to lecturing and time outs.
Well I would not say that Jamie Oliver “abused” his daughter, every parent has their own way to discipline their children; maybe that is Jamie’s way to discipline his daughter? Who knows. Punishment and abuse are 2 different things, usually punishment results in the person who gets punished becomes a better person, if Jamie chose to punish his daughter with a hot chili then that’s his preference. However, I do not agree the part where he uses scotch bonnets to punish his daughter; I mean that’s got to be up there as one of the hottest chili in the world. I don’t know what his daughter did to deserve such punishment but if Jamie wants to punish his daughter at least consider what he is going to use as the punishment. Scotch bonnets have a rating of 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale, I’m not a fan of spicy food myself but judging by that number, that is hot. Next time Jamie uses chili to punish his daughter, he should think about the consequences that might affect his daughter.
ReplyDeleteThe article above particularly attracted my attention because it brings up a very unique topic. It has never crossed my mind to utilize food as a medium for punishment. I strongly agree with the argument stated in the article on why parents should not use food as a form of punishment to their children. In my opinion, food should be something that is impossible to be regarded as bad as it is the most important need of human. If the children dislike food and they become traumatized because they see it as something that is dangerous, there will be a far bigger problem that parents must handle. In order to survive, every human being must eat. When children decided not to like food any longer, they will starve themselves deliberately. This will be a challenge for every parents to make their children have the urge to eat. This is why I think parents should never use food to behave their children.
ReplyDeleteA child curiosity is what drive their actions. Yes, most of the time we will find their constant nonsense question to be somewhat annoying, and their recklessness on trying something new to be somewhat disturbing, but it is a part of what growing up is supposed to be like. Nevertheless, we must never punish our children physically. A physical punishment could lead into some serious misbehaviour later on. A child could show symptoms of depression, which could lead to self harm, or it could traumatize them permanently, preventing them to function normally in the midst of society. Furthermore, punishing by forcing them to eat something that they could hurt them physically would be hazardous in the future. Since consuming food is our source of nourishment, traumatizing them in eating could lead them to suffer from eating disorder, which could threaten their life. Thus I believe that this kind of punishment should be abolished in the future.
ReplyDeleteParents have an obligation to teach their children to behave and to speak in the society. Sometimes parents need to give some kind of punishment to their children for their misbehavior they done. There are many kind of punishment parent’s use from no phone for a week or something physical. But I never thought in my life that you can use food to punish you children. This kind of punishment more like a prank from one of your friend or a dare from truth or dare in the late late show. Foods are something that will affect their growth both mentally and physically. Foods supposed to be something that will help your children growth and food can become really good way to show your parenthood affection to your child. The only thing that this kind of punishment will bring is the rise of fear to your food and their respect to your cooking skill if they have any
ReplyDeleteThe idea of using food as a medium for punishment is not good at all. I strongly disagree on using food to punish people because of bad behaviour. Even though the use of spicy foods were originated for the use of revenge towards people but I think that is no longer necessary, especially to children. While Jamie Oliver is a celebrity chef, I think the use of apple slice that is rubbed with bonnet chilli doesn’t make him having the rights at all. His children would have experience trauma because of the food that is given to them. They would also think that apple tastes spicy because of not knowing that their father put some chilli into the apple slice. For me the most ideal way to teach his children a lesson after doing some bad things is to tell them directly that what they are doing is wrong and to not do it again in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe practice of ‘hot saucing’ children’s tongue as a method of discipline might be considered as cruelty by some parents but for those who have been practicing this form of punishment regularly, says it’s teaches their children valuable and long-lasting lessons. The sting and it’s memory stays with them so that the next time they are about to lie or misbehave, they could have some self-control. I have experienced this disciplinary method when I was about 6 or 7 years old because I nagged a lot and is too much of a picky eater. Although I cried at first as the stinging sensation burns my tongue, I grew over it and now chili has been a part of my diet. Traditional Javanese parents actually used to do this by giving them a herbal drink or locally known as ‘jamu cekok’ which is helpful in increasing their children’s appetite as well as improving their immune system. Although as someone who have experienced this, I think that drinking ‘cekokan’ is a torture as it is indescribably bitter. For me, using the medium of food to punish children is acceptable, however, they should be old enough to even understand that what they’re doing is wrong. I think that this punishment is applicable for those aged 7 above as they are also starting to try different kinds of food. Indonesian parents actually ‘hot-sauced’ their children as an act of love so that they would not grow up as a picky eater and would eat a lot (which means more nutrition) in order to better grow.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that it’s not a good idea to imply chilli punishment because I think it gives no good impact towards your children’s character development, in fact, it’s more likely to be considered as a method of torturing, not a method of teaching. A punishment should provide good benefits for the future. The purpose of giving punishment to your kids is actually to make the children realize that they have done something wrong or bad, also to give deterrent effect so they won’t repeat the same mistake. Giving chilli rubbed apple slices only gives bad effect towards your child’s digestion, but didn’t properly do what a punishment should do. Well, I know that every parents have their own style of educating their children, but there is such thing as ‘bad parenting’ which could give bad effect towards your children’s moral development, so I think Jamie should reconsider his way of parenting.
ReplyDeleteMy mom told me when she was a child, sometimes when she said bad thing to my grandma, my grandma would hot saucing her mouth with chili (but not the scotch bonnets chili). Back then, she thought that it was cruel. But, when she grown up, she told me that it was worth it because she grown up into a polite girl and never talk bad to older people. Yet, sometimes she still argued with my grandma but I think it is natural to have disagreement with your parents.
ReplyDeleteIn a modern family, this kind of treatment are reducing and people educate their child in a more humane way. But, in some family, they treat their children by giving all the thing that the child want and spoiled them. After that, the child grown into an annoying and disrespectful person. Parenting is a hard thing to do, it requires the balance amount of love and discipline to raise a good child.
Personally, the idea of using food as a way to punish is unacceptable. growing up I always thought by my parents not to play with foods, and in college I was thought to not waste any kind of resources, or in this case food. The idea of intentionally making a bad tasting food really makes me angry because some people can not even afford them. I may not have children yet, but I understand what is the purpose of a punishment. I believed that the purposed of a punishment is to stop a certain bad behaviour that in desperate need need of being fixed. This means that outside of what stated earlier, such as for the sake of comedy, is out of the argument. So the conclusion is Jamie Ovier may not “abused” her daughter ,but what he had done is considered unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article I quickly laugh because of what Jamie Oliver did to his daughter, that was an absolute masterpiece. Most people may not agree with me but I think to give such punishment is still acceptable because it for me it is considered as a prank and I don’t really take a lot of things very seriously almost everything maybe. But maybe not a lot of people would do what Jamie Oliver did to his daughter maybe because he is a chef so maybe that is his way of giving a punishment to his daughter other people may varies. So to conclude my comment on this article, I am personally okay to what Jamie Oliver did and agrees that we have to give punishment to our children in order to discipline them, but that punishment must not be an act human violence or involving weapons or things like a broom just like Indonesian mostly do to their children.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think using food as punishment to kids is a good idea, like what Jamie Oliver do. By giving bad food to them not making them realize they do something wrong. I think the point of giving punishment is to make them realize their mistake and make sure they will not do that again. On other side, I agree with using chili as punishment, as long as we can make sure they realize their mistake and will not do it again and also it will be better than using physical punishment like beat them with ruler or other things or says something harshly to them. But of course it will be better if we not punish them, but tells their mistake softly and give them some logical reason why they cannot doing that again. I think we do not need to punish kids but we have to discipline them.
ReplyDeleteChildren often do bad behaviours, ofcourse, because they are just a kid with no broad experiences. Being a children means you still have time to learn something new from everyone, including your parents. I myself as a kid back then, didn’t have any broad experience since i was living in this world in a short period of time. Back then, my parents often punish me because of my bad behaviour, such as missing the prayers. When i missed my prayers, my father punished me with the way the Prophet did back in his era, hitting the kid. It was effective because i never missed my prayers back in those days, but when i have a thought on it, it wasn’t good for your kid. It leaves mark and traumatized them because of the hitting, and the way to put chillies in the tongue would leave them in trauma, and it is not good for them in the future.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I agree with Tim Dowling on his comment on serving his kids apples that have been rubbed in chili and regarding the topic of not having the meal according to his plan. I don’t think it’s right to give your kids apples serve with chili because who would want to eat that? I’m also pretty sure that Tim would also not want to eat that apple, which is why he also shouldn’t serve it to the kids. I also don’t quite agree with what he said regarding not wanting his kids to think that there’s no such thing as good or bad food. For me, I would want my kids to know the difference between what good or bad food taste like because I want my kids to differentiate between and eatable and not eatable food. If I didn’t give them reference to what a good or bad food taste like, then they might not know the difference between a food that already expired/ shouldn’t be eaten, which could lead to a problem. In other cases, like the vegetable case, if they considered that as a bad food, of course as a parent I will try to serve it in a way that they like so they can learn to love eating vegetables. I also didn’t agree with Tim’s action of throwing his food away when no one was looking and forcing his kids to eat the food even though he considered it as a bad food. I think he’s not showing a good example of making the kids think there’s no such thing as bad/good food because he himself is not setting a good example for that.
ReplyDeleteI think when kids misbehave, we shouldn’t give punishments, especially with food involved. Yes, we should discipline them and tell them what is right and what is wrong, but using food as a punishment for what they did is not good for them. I agree with what the article said about using food as punishment can lead to your cooking regarded as a form of child cruelty. They may get traumatized and ended up hating certain food or even food in general. They could develop eating disorders because they think that some food is only consumed as a part of a punishment. There are many different ways for parents to discipline their child, but giving a punishment that give them physical pain is very wrong and I really don’t agree with it. I think if our kids misbehave, we should tell them what they did wrong and explain to them the effect of their behaviour so they wouldn’t do it again.
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