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Dateline: Palm Bay, Florida. "Mom and boyfriend, arrested for washing out daughter's mouth, with soap."

I am not making this up: booked and charged (mugshots, anyone?) for washing out the 8-year-old's mouth out, with soap. Usual qualifiers: no child should ever be harmed, children are the future, child abuse is inexcusable, the Cubs will never win a penant, children deserve a safe haven. Allegedly, the little girl swears, mom and the boyfriend go to her school, put a bar of soap in her mouth for 10 minutes, she barfs, they take her to hospital, hospital calls cops, cops investigate child abuse

Good Lord. Don't make me open up my folder of "When I Was a Child"-stories.  But on me, mom used Lava soap. (Now with more pumice power for cleaning!) Once. That's all it took. And by the way, my teeth were never whiter.

Hey! As a famous U.S. president said earlier this year, "Now, I don't know...all the facts," but the old wash-out-your-mouth-with-soap threat, carried out judiciously, can make for a whole roomful of kids who quit using profanities. That kind of story goes viral quickly.

Parents: proper punishment or child abuse? You got a better plan? I hear a drop of hot sauce on the tongue is en vogue. Waterboarding?  Leave your Better Parenting ideas, --or share what your folks did with you-- in Comments, below.

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