Dad Forces 4-Year-Old To Carry Water Jugs As Punishment Because ‘You Spank Your Kid, You Will Go To Jail’

Credit: TikTok/@hamburgerjones23

A troubling TikTok video of four-year-old hauling buckets of water back and forth across a yard has gone viral, and the father who filmed it all is both bragging about and criticizing the manner he is disciplining his child while simultaneously grumbling about it. He is doing it for internet popularity.

Despite several scary statements made by TikTok user "Derek" during roughly nine minutes of recording, the video has received an unsettling number of comments applauding him and has received over 2.2 million views in just four days.

Top of the list is the claims that this is retribution for hitting his mother, along with complaints that he must make his child perform strenuous physical labor because liberals no longer let parents beat their kids. 

Credit: TikTok/@hamburgerjones23

Additionally, he does this while employing an offensive ableist slur that mixes the phrase "liberals" with the word.

“Spanking’s out of the question because you libt–ds made it so we can’t spank out kids no more,” he says.

Spanking and other physical abuse of children has been prohibited in many places, regardless of political persuasion, because it has been shown in several studies over the course of many years to be traumatizing, damaging to trust, and even capable of impairing brain development. After all that, it's not only ineffectual but oftentimes makes poor conduct worse.

Credit: TikTok/@hamburgerjones23

When Derek says he wants to "break the cycle of stupidity" by having his son carry water instead of getting a spanking, it is alternately shocking, infuriating, and heartbreaking to hear him remark that he also wants to "beat the s-t out of” the four-year-old.

He also acknowledges that, although he doesn't use those same words, his own parents physically mistreated him. However, beating a child is abuse, and denying this is just as bad.

“We’re not allowed to spank in the state of Wisconsin because there [are] some libt–ds saying there [are] better ways,” Derek complains. “I know just an a– whoopin’ is what it needs but like I said, I can’t do it no more. You spank your kid, you will go to jail.”

God forbid we lock up those who abuse children.

Credit: TikTok/@hamburgerjones23

“I couldn’t even imagine what it’d be like if I got away with hitting my mom,” he adds later. “I can just feel the a– whooping I would have got thinking about it.”

Unfortunately, he says this directly in front of the child, who probably heard and may now be scared of receiving such a beating.

While choosing to employ physical labor as a means of punishment rather than resorting to outright brutal assaults on a child may represent a step forward, it remains a form of physical discipline that can potentially lead to traumatic experiences and other issues. Throughout the video, the child seems to indicate experiencing pain on at least one occasion, and Derek's response, acknowledging that he now comprehends how his mother feels after he hit her, demonstrates his full awareness that his actions are causing physical harm to his own son.

Furthermore, a growing body of research by specialists in child development contends that attempting to change young children's conduct through punishment is at best ineffectual. Although hitting is a behavior that needs to be addressed, there are many more effective ways to do so given that four-year-olds are still working on any kind of impulse control. 

The child in this video appears to be showing guilt as a result of being treated as though they're awful for not being able to control their impulses.

Don't be fooled by Derek's constant expressions of affection and hugs for the youngster; these actions are encouraged in the infamous abuse guidebook To Train Up a Youngster and will never remove or even minimize the damage experienced by abused children.

Despite years of evidence accumulating that physical punishment is seriously damaging, it is nevertheless a frequent practice in many American households. Psychologists have long complained about this, yet they are adamant about continuing to spread the information.

According to Christina Rodriguez, Ph.D., chair of the APA Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, "It is long past opinion that physical discipline makes things worse."  

“It is incumbent on psychologists to take the opportunity to discuss the facts and share what we know. If mental health professionals don’t take this on, then who?”