![]() Spoiler Alert: At the end of the “Where the Wild Things Are,” a hot supper is waiting for the Wild Thing in his room. What a surprise then to see on “Pawn Stars” in 2022 that a famous 1963 childhood book (20 million copies sold) contains in its plot my long repressed childhood fate, banishment to my room with an empty stomach. So by 2022 I hadn’t heard the term “go to your room without supper ” for decades. The new parenting strategy became: Withhold a privilege like free time, not a necessity like a meal, to get your kid to behave. Go stand in your corner” was the new command and it was said softly, not yelled as an order. And by the time parenting was an issue for my generation, a new fleet of “enlightened parents” had switched to behavior modification rather than appetite deprivation: “Time Out. When Maurice Sendak published “Where the Wild Things Are” in 1963, banishment “without supper” must still have been a common punishment.īut in 1963 I was 19 years old, so I was beyond childhood punishments. ![]() Today the command “Go to your room without supper” would be considered child abuse not modern parenting as it was believed to be in 1950. They employed the sophisticated psychology of manipulating their child’s hunger by withholding food, rather than reddening his flesh. They used psychological punishment rather than physical punishment. When I was five in 1950 my parents fancied themselves to be progressive liberals because they didn’t spank me, or use another implement across their kid’s flesh. I imagined myself to be the last person on the planet who has ever heard the parental order “go to your room without supper” actually uttered as a punishment. ![]() In 2022 I hadn’t heard that phrase for 72 years. ![]()
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