Dad 'Gentle Parents' Daughter By Letting Her Learn That Chili Peppers Are Hot 'The Hard Way'
He stayed out of it and she immediately regretted her decision.
TikTok An Australian father and his daughter went into the grocery store for a normal shopping trip when Ashlee — the young girl — decided to grab hold of a couple of chili peppers that it looked like she was pining to eat.
As the intelligent father that Josh Neille is, his immediate reaction was to whip out his phone and press record, hoping to capture the beautiful moment that would eventually take place.
This dad lets his daughter learn that chili peppers are hot ‘the hard way.’
Josh thought he would teach his daughter a valuable life lesson by letting her experiment with a chili pepper on her own, despite warning her that the pepper would be very hot.
This Aussie father, according to his Instagram bio, is a farmer who frequently posts about his adventures with his daughter, Ashlee, his farm animals, and his fishing catches. Today, however, we’re watching on as his daughter learns just how hot chili peppers can be.
“Your mouth will burn out and you’ll cry,” is the opening statement we hear from Josh. “Is this going to be one of those life lessons where I get to say ‘I told you so?’”
The adorable girl looks at her father with eyes that read she doesn’t have a care in the world, and in fact, she doesn’t even believe him, making a pose and saying “But, it’s not very spicy.” Josh once again tries to warn her that while they’re not hot right now — seeing as all she’s doing is holding them — they will be once she gets “a little bit of chili flake.”
After a quick jump cut back into the car, Josh whips out his phone once more to catch Ashlee in the act of taking the chili peppers out of the produce bag.
He lets her eat the chili peppers on her own after one last warning.
“Hey, are you honestly going to eat them?” he asks his daughter, who is completely undeterred and has become ungovernable. “I’m trying to tell you, they’re going to be very hot, but you don’t want to listen to me, do you?”
Another quick jump cut later, we can see that a bit of the chili pepper has been bitten off from the top, and Ashlee boasts “They’re not so spicy,” but she’s merely had a couple of moments with the chili pepper inside of her mouth.
Ashlee chews, and chews, and chews a little more as her dad goads her on, repeating questions akin to “They’re not spicy? Not at all?” Once a few more seconds have passed, she visibly makes a strained face and looks out the window and away from her dad who was about to relish in the fact that he was right. “They’re a little bit spicy,” she says.
Josh laughs a little, and says “They’re a little bit spicy, are they?! How much?” He maintains a playful attitude as she makes a gesture with her hands to show that they’re only a little bit spicy, and definitely not as spicy as he was making them out to be — putting on a brave face.
“Are you regretting your decision yet?” her dad asks, prompting a big nod from her, but it doesn’t deter her. She takes another bite out of spite and immediately spits it out, conceding that they are very spicy, and according to her, “hundreds of hot.”
Josh gets his ‘I told you so’ moment and other parents in the comments think he did the right thing.
He asks Ashlee, “Did you make a mistake?” and knowing full well that she did, she finally admits that she did. “This kid cracks me up,” Josh says towards the end of the video. “Onya!” he says to Ashlee, which is short for “good on you” in Australia, and gets a happy little “onya!” back from her.
“This is the gentle parenting I can get behind,” one person writes, claiming that this dad was employing gentle parenting through his calm demeanor and letting her learn for herself. A second person wrote, “Sometimes they just need to find out for themselves, good job Dad.”
With their mind on the food, one person actually thought that this was a good idea since they could start building a tolerance for spicy food young. Someone else reminded him that it’s important she knows she shouldn’t touch her eyes after.
No harm was done, and she “took it like a champ” in her dad’s words, so letting her learn “the hard way” benefitted her in the end.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.