Arnold Schwarzenegger has opened up about his unconventional parenting methods, including once burning his daughter’s shoes in the fireplace.
The Terminator actor, 76, has four children with ex-wife Maria Shriver including Katherine, 33, Christina, 31, Patrick, 30, and Christopher, 26.
He is also dad to Joseph Baena, 25, from his affair with housekeeper Mildred Baena.
In a new interview he has told how his “bossy and tough” approach has worked wonders in raising well-rounded kids.
One example he gave to People magazine was burning his eldest daughter’s shoes in front of her to “teach a life lesson”.
He explained that he took the drastic course of action after she failed to put them away multiple times, saying: “As a matter of fact, Katherine comes over with [her three-year-old daughter] Lyla and she says, ‘Lyla, I told you already not to put the shoes there.
‘Keep your shoes on or you put them away, but you don’t leave them there by the stand in front of the fireplace because you know what Daddy did? When I left my shoes there twice? The third time, he burned them in front of me and I cried.’”
Claiming that his daughter now uses the same methods she “cried and complained over”, he also recalled an incident when he threw son Patrick’s mattress off a balcony after he failed to make his bed.
He recalled: “I opened up the door to the balcony, picked up the mattress and threw it down with the bedsheets, the pillows, everything. I said, ‘Don’t ever make someone come in and clean your room, clean your shower or make your bed’, I said, ‘Because I taught you how to make the bed.’”
