From the Washington Post:

Hot sauce adds a kick to salsa, barbeque, falafel and hundreds of other foods. But some parents use it in a different recipe, one they think will yield better-behaved children: They put a drop of the fiery liquid on a child’s tongue as punishment for lying, biting, hitting or other offenses.

I’m  wondering how many parents in this country are still practicing spanking.  I’m all for it, myself, if it brings kids back into a disciplined world.  The hot-tongue thing — I don’t know.  I mean, I like spicy food, so it probably wouldn’t have done anything to me (although a selection from this page might have had some cautionary effects); on the other hand, I am and always have been reasonably averse to stinging pain on my ass, and so was reasonably careful to not do things that would result in a spanking.

Okay, I was careful not to get caught doing those things.  But it made me a better person (and by better, I mean sneakier.  Same difference).

Still, I’ve seen too many kids these days getting punished with time-outs, harsh words, inconsistent discipline if any at all… It’s no wonder to me that some days it seems like kids are becoming more willful and obnoxious. It might be that I’m getting older and turning into my grandfather, sure.  But why take the blame when I can place it elsewhere?

Any day now, I’m going to write that parenting handbook I’ve always imagined.  First, I’ll have to go back and watch all the torture scenes from the last five seasons of 24, but then I should have it down.

(Oh man — I just realized that Lisa Whelchel is Blair from The Facts of Life.  Weird.)