People Share The Strangest Ways Their Parents Disciplined Them Growing Up

Let’s be honest: Being a parent is a tough gig.

Yes, it’s certainly rewarding, but it’s not easy.

In addition to making sure that their kids’ are happy and healthy, parents also have to find creative ways to discipline them when they get out of line.

Of course, no parent wants to make their child suffer even more. In a perfect world, every kid would behave accordingly. They would eat all their vegetables, never skip class, and certainly won’t cheat on their homework. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth, and it’s up to the parents to decide exactly how they’re going to teach them a lesson when their kids do something bad, which is not easy, to say the least.

But how exactly do parents choose to punish their kids to get the message across?

While you’re probably familiar with tactics like washing their kids’ mouth out with soap when they curse or removing the door to their kids’ rooms when they do something naughty, these infamous disciplines won’t even compete with the punishments we found on Reddit.

If you’re curious about how parents choose to discipline their kids, scroll below to find the 15 craziest and strangest stories Redditors have shared from their childhoods.

1. A dad made his kids watch paint dry.
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This sounds like torture.

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While painting a room can be fun, watching the paint dry to completion is torturous. No wonder this parent chose to discipline his kids by making them a watch freshly painted wall completely dry. Even though we have no idea what they did to deserve this punishment, we’re pretty sure they never did it again.

2. Parents made their child dig a large hole.
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Verdict: Don’t lie to your parents. Ever.

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Digging a hole takes a lot of man/woman power. And most people only decide to do this if they absolutely have to. Unfortunately, for this Redditor, they were told to dig a four-foot-wide, four-foot-long and four-foot deep hole because they lied to their parents when they were eight years old.

3. Parents made their child clean their cat’s litter box 400 times.

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At least the cat was happy.

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Parenting in today’s modern world means you have to look out for your money. While kids used to steal cash from their parent’s wallet, most children today spend their parents’ money via phone apps. So when this Redditor decided to cash in on $400 worth of in-app purchases, you can bet their parents weren’t happy.

4. Kid’s parents took away their braces appointment.

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Guess their punishment was continuing to have crooked teeth?

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While this might not be the best way to discipline a kid, to each his own. Unfortunately, Reddit user @reddituser2907 didn’t actually do anything wrong to be given this punishment, but, according to them, there was no changing their parents’ minds.

This is why it is so important to be honest with your parents, and hang out with the right crowd. Sometimes you can become associated with your friends’ crimes. We’re not saying this is fair, but it happens.

5. A mother made her child retile their neighbor’s bathroom.
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At least they got paid $200 for completing it.

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When kids get bad grades in class, parents will normally prevent their kids from watching TV or using their phone; however, for this Reddit user, their mom punished them by forcing them to retile their neighbor’s bathroom.

We have so many questions. How do bad grades correlate to manual labor? Why this neighbor? Something seems odd.

Luckily, their neighbors paid them. Thank goodness.

6. These brothers were forced to watch a Barney VHS.

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Well, there are good lessons to learn from this show.

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What’s not to love about Barney the Dinosaur? He’s big and purple, incredibly friendly, and provides the best advice. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to agree. So when this Redditor and their brother were disrespectful, their parents made them watch Barney as punishment. Guess they’re not a big happy family.

7. Three kids got grounded with a three-day slumber party

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This was supposed to be a punishment?

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As a teenager, you’re bound to do some crazy things. It’s high school after all, what else are you supposed to do? Unfortunately, this Redditor got caught. And while their parents could have punished them for months, they decided to ground their best friends, too, and scheduled a supervised three-day slumber party.

8. A kid was forced to kneel in front of a toilet for 20 minutes.
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He should have flushed.

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It’s a pretty standard thing: When you go to the bathroom, you flush the toilet. Simple, right? Well, apparently, this Redditor user claims that her brother would always forget to flush the toilet. Until one day, his mom found the…droppings and forced him to kneel in front of the toilet for 20 minutes. Yeah, he never did that again, that’s for sure.

9. A mom would put her child’s toys in time out.

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Take that, Barbie.

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Typically, parents will punish their kids when they do something wrong. However, sometimes, it just doesn’t work. So what are you supposed to do when your go-to punishments no longer work on your kids? You place your kid’s toys in time out to show them whose boss. Works wonders.

10. A dad would punish his kids with music.

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That’s one way to do it.

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If you’re a parent who loves music, consider punishing your kids by forcing them to learn an instrument or listening to a specific CD while writing down the lyrics. While it might not be considered a horrible discipline, at least they’ll learn something new.

Not quite sure listening to ABBA is a punishment, but for some kids it might be the equivalent of sitting in a corner.

11. Parent’s convinced their kid that they were poor for an entire year.

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That’s creative.

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Hey, when your kids are constantly asking you for new toys, you gotta do what you gotta do. So if this means you have to tell your kids that the family is poor and you no longer can afford to buy them toys every single day, then you do you boo. Don’t worry, your child will eventually get the hint.

12. A kid was forced to smell their dog’s breath.

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Hopefully, this punishment didn’t last too long.

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One of the things children reframe from doing is brushing their teeth. It might not be a fun thing to do every day, but you certainly don’t want others to smell your stinky breath. Unfortunately, for this Redditor, that’s exactly what happened. So their parents decided to punish them by making them smell their dog’s breath. Gross.

13. A mom forced their child to make a paper airplane.

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Unfortunately, it never worked out.

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Making your kids do arts and crafts might not seem like a horrible way to discipline them; however, when they get in a fight with their sibling about paper airplanes, it might make sense. According to this Reddit user, their mom ground them for a week and forced them to make a paper plane that could reach the other side of their backyard. After constructing around 200 planes, none of them worked out.

14. Siblings were forced to watch their dad paint their fence.
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At least he rubbed sunscreen on them.

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When your kids are acting up, and you’re trying to work on a project, make them watch you complete it. The punishment will work like a charm. For instance, Reddit user @missbinz said that after they stuck a fork in their sibling’s mouth, their father forced them to watch him paint his fence all afternoon.

15. A mom would threaten to read the last page of a book.
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This is horrible!

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When you have a good kid on your hands and they don’t do anything wrong, it can be tough to find a way to punish them, especially when they don’t go on their computer or watch TV. However, if your kid loves to read, you could threaten to read the last page of their current favorite book to stop them from doing whatever they’re doing. It’s a poor move, but someone has to do it.