Chinese boy watches TV ‘too much,’ gets punished with all-night TV binge

November 24, 2022

An 8-year-old Chinese boy from Hunan province in central China was reportedly forced to watch television all night by his parents as punishment for not finishing his homework and watching too much TV.

The boy’s parents asked him to finish his homework and go to bed by 8:30 p.m. when they left their home, but instead of complying, the boy chose to watch TV instead of doing his tasks or showering.

The timestamp on stills of the CCTV footage from the family’s home indicate the incident took place on Nov. 11.

When the parents arrived home, the boy immediately went to bed, but his parents noticed that he did not finish his homework and dragged him out to the living room to punish him. He was made to stay up all night watching TV, and while he appeared relaxed at first, he began crying at around 2 a.m.

He tried to sneak back into his room to sleep, but his mother caught him and forced him back to the sofa to watch more television. His parents reportedly took turns watching over the boy, who was only allowed to sleep at 5 a.m.

The story ignited a discussion on Chinese social media, with some commenters criticizing the parents’ punishment and others sharing similar experiences.

One user commented, “I had a similar experience. After taking our three-year-old son, who is a fan of KFC, to eat hamburgers and chicken for three days, now his enthusiasm has gone.”

“The punishment was too harsh, and what if the boy starts to get used to staying up late?” another wrote.

Tough parenting – sometimes referred to as tiger parenting – is seen by some parents as a way to raise their children to become model citizens.

Tiger parenting can also continue even after adulthood. A 22-year-old woman’s story went viral in June after she revealed that her mother makes her take a breathalyzer test whenever she comes home from a night out with friends.

While having tiger parents can sometimes lead to success later in life, a group of researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium found that a strict parenting environment could manifest depression later on in a child’s life.

Featured Image via 趣事大赏

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