This subject has been on my mind all week, especially in the wake of the controversy surrounding the video by Tommy Jordan where he shoots his daughter's laptop. I thought what he did was brilliant, although I thought shooting the laptop was a little extreme.
I know there were a lot of people who thought he shouldn't be using the social media for this, however, those people missed the point of the exercise. First of all, his daughter used the very same media to rant about how much work she supposedly has to do at home. Now we all know that kids, especially teenagers, will exaggerate to garner sympathy from their peers (the worse the story is the more sympathy they get). Instead of his daughter expressing her feelings to just a few of her friends, she chose to put it on Face book. The only reason she got caught was because she had used an account that was under the dog's name (she created this one herself, because she had blocked her parents from seeing her Face book). However, her dad works in IT and since she wanted him to fix her computer, voila, her stuff got exposed to him.
From the updates that I read, Hannah (his daughter) had pulled a very similar stunt months before, and she was grounded then. It was not put on the social media then, and Mr. Jordan rightfully assumed that she had learned her lesson. Apparently not, because she did it again. So, now he was stooping to her level and catching her at her own game - she humiliated her parents, and now he was serving her some humble pie himself. He did what he thought would be the best way to get through to her. I see nothing wrong with that - she didn't learn the first time, so something a little more drastic that would get her attention needed to be done. Hannah also posted on the update, and she understood what her dad did; she did learn her lesson from it, and realizes that if she ever expects to get any privileges, etc. back again, then she needs to earn them back. She basically violated her parents' trust in her and now she needs to earn that back. She isn't scarred by it either, as some people posted. She completely understands what she did was wrong and is now working to correct it.
Kids nowadays have this weird sense of entitlement, and figure that they can get away with things. I had my 9 year old son watch the video, and I asked him at the end what he learned from it. Granted, there were a lot of bad words in it (mostly from Hannah, I might add), and he said to me "don't dis your parents." He then went on to say that if him or his sister ever did anything like that, I certainly wouldn't use a gun - I would use a hammer instead!
I see so many kids with a lack of direction or discipline these days, I can't help but wonder what they will be like as adults. Even at my son's elementary school (which is a Catholic school no less), there are kids as young as 6 or 7 using bad language, fighting, etc. Obviously, these are learned behaviours, but the point is that are the parents that oblivious to how their kids are behaving?
It's amazing that some of these parents will ignore what their kids are doing, yet they are the first to pipe up if someone else's kid is acting up.
There are many experts out there who tell us how we should be raising our children. I never listen to these experts. Why? Because every kid is different, and what works for one kid may not work for another. Some kids get the point right away, other need a few more "lessons" taught to them before they get it. My daughter is one of those kids. She is a teenager, but she is also special needs. So, when she acts up, the discipline is going to be different for her than it is for her brother. She doesn't "get it" right away - she may need a few other "lessons" (i.e. having her computer privileges taken away) before it sinks in. With my son, it usually only takes one time and he's got it.
I am by no means saying that my children are angels either. They make mistakes like we do and they have to learn to correct them. My daughter is learning right now as a matter of fact that when you break equipment at school (or anywhere), you have to pay for it (not your parents - you). She isn't happy with it, but it's a life lesson for her - you break, you buy.
I know I may take some flak from this, but my point is that you have to discipline your children the way you know works (within reason of course; that doesn't mean you need to beat them black and blue), but they need to realize that there are consequences to their actions. Once this happens, they can grow up to be productive members of society, who look out for others, not just themselves.
Anyway, I look forward to everyone's opinion on this subject, just please keep it clean!
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