In Secret Garden, why throw water?

In the Korean show Secret Garden, why does the mother keep threatening to throw water at Gil Ra Im? In a few episodes before she does it she threatens to throw water at Gil Ra Im's face (or at least that's how it comes out in the translations). Why?

I would understand if it was a heat of the moment kind of thing, but why threaten to do it before actually doing it? Is this a cultural thing, or just a weird thing of the mom?

?2013-01-16T15:01:20Z

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Over here it says something about it being an insult. http://www.dramabeans.com/2011/05/open-thread-188/
(Click Ctrl+F and type in "throw" - it'll take you to the relevant sections.)