Arnold Schwarzenegger recently admitted to some pretty extreme behaviour as a parent. He said in an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, that when his kids were young, he once threw his son’s mattress off the balcony and into the pool because his son hadn’t made his own bed.
Another time, the actor said, he burned his daughter’s shoes in the fireplace when she failed to put them away properly.
He’s not the only parent to go to remarkable lengths to teach their child a lesson. Below are 16 stories from X (formerly Twitter) and our HuffPost Parents Facebook community about the outlandish things parents will do to prove a point.
“I took all the cords for electronics away, worst I’ve done. The things they would do for chargers and HDMI cords!” — Gwendy Moreno
“My mother repeatedly told me and my sister ‘if you don’t stop fighting over who gets to jump on the trampoline I’m going to get rid of it.’ We laughed and continued to fight over it — and one day she walked outside with a huge knife and cut the fabric in half. And that was that!” — Jenny Yates Jeschke
“My dad got tired of my sister slamming doors so he took [the door] off the hinges and burned it in the front yard. That was about 20 years ago. Recently, he admitted he only made a spectacle about burning it since he already planned on buying upgraded doors for the house in the future. It totally worked, though! Now I use the story to teach my own kids not to slam their doors.” — Audrey VanScyoc
“While on a trip, my kids were fighting over a toy in the backseat of the car. I asked them to stop a number of times. I finally reached back, grabbed the toy, rolled down the passenger side window, and tossed the toy out. They were well-behaved the rest of the trip, and every trip after that, actually.” — Kathie Hilliard
“I had a coworker who once told me she was having trouble with her teenage son exhibiting rebellious behavior. So she took all his favorite things and plastic wrapped them to the dining room table — where he could see them every time he walked through to his bedroom. She said it worked — he gradually earned it all back. He’s grown up now and has a family of his own, but they often visit.” —Tammy Smith
“My dad one time came in the house and claims that everyone was watching tv and no one even acknowledged him — so he walked over to the tv and cut the cord.” — Jenny Orozco