18 replies to this topic

[Kraut]

.. and I don't mean that in the sarcastic sense.

[excat]

That's great. Responsibility is a bitch....I would have rather see him hit it with a shotgun though.

[Spiecher]

Ha! I love it!

[Hat3d1]

My Newest Hero.

[knightargent]

Good one

[burch]

this is all over the web, I love it, and do not disagree with this man one bit. Thats what I call parenting, I wont get started on my rant about that issue lol sure I will piss some people off if I did.

[BBSlinger]

So. You think putting rounds through a laptop is going to stop anything? No. It will just make it worse.

Do you think this is the correct way to deal with your child? Posting a video on YouTube?

Is this how far we are taking the internet?

What is more effective? Sitting down and talking? Or making a video and posting it to the internet, of your self shooting a laptop?

[Ian]

He had already gone through this with her before and clearly it didn't work.

We are not in a position to judge right or wrong in this case because we don't know the family, the daughter, or her actions before this in any great detail other than what we can infer from the video.

I thought it was great.

[mayonnaiseplant]

I'm sure there is more to the story on both sides.

That being said, regardless, taking out a gun and shooting her laptop is a bit excessive.

1) It could really scare the child (doubtful I think though)
and
2) OMFG JUST SELL THE LAPTOP YOU DOUCHEBAG, I COULD USE THAT FOR SCHOOL IN COLLEGE


Seriously.. I could have.

[Kraut]

It's his property and he's free to do with it as he pleases. The impression I got from the shooting was "this is not a joke, this is perminent. Do not think you can get away with blatant disrespect to your own parents, who provide you with very nice things and only ask you pick up after yourself and help out".
I know spoiled kids are nothing new. However, it does seem like too many feel entitled to everything they desire without any contribution on their own part.
I'm not saying I'm the perfect kid; I had/have plenty of my own faults, but I would NEVER show such blatant disrespect, especially on an open internet social media format.

[BBSlinger]

You look around today, and you see all the bad stuff going on. Parents like these are part of the problem. He said in the Video," It's about to get a whole lot harder". Your duty as a parent is not to slave your kids! Teach them in obedience and stuff like this wouldn't happen this often! It's the parents duty to teach your children, this does not require you to put holes through a electronic device, and make your kids life hard. Making it difficult for them, will just urge on more bad stuff to come in the future.

Teach your children in the first place, and this wouldn't happen. I'm lucky enough to have wonderful parents, I know not everyone does. Train and Teach your children the right way.

[excat]

Being a parent, and a kid at heart, I can agree on both fronts of the arguement here. I do totally support what the father did though. It is not enough to teach children, and contiune to give them chances when they obviously have high disregard for authority (parents), being how the father stated this is not the first time to step out of line in this format, just to go this far.

Less a 1/2 of a child's time now is spent at home, since most parents work a lot of hours, and kids are spending more time at school, after school programs, and even when they are home, they are locked in social media buried in their room. So just becuase you do put good influces on your child, does not mean they are the influence they are exposed to the most. Poor friend choices and social media make a parents job harder, and now it is even harder to make a kid drop a poor friend choice becuase they just stay in contact in social media, and they see that said friend's attitude only in "status updates".

Personally, I would have sold it, becuase money is an issue for me, OR I would have forced her to donate the laptop. (My last "outdated" laptop I donated to an under priveladged family whoes father I know works with me, and his son needed a computer to help with getting applying colleges, and doing applications, financial aid, etc.) I definitely can't knock the man though for making a statement that if she is going to publically disrespect him in such a manner, he was at least polite enough to share with her friends PUBLICALLY of why she would not longer be on Facebook spreading more trash around.

[mayonnaiseplant]

All joking aside, him destroying the laptop was all I had a problem with.

I would have sold it or donated it at a minimum. That's all.

Other than that I definitely think parents need to be more involved with their children. And kids need to learn that sometimes the things you do have permanent consequences.

[Kanvass]

I'm always dubious of over dramatized vids like this. Firstly, why is he posting on YouTube when his daughter's laptop is about to be destroyed? His daughter won't be able to see it, her computer's broken. Why is he throwing his family's dirty laundry to the world for all to see? He's grinning and laughing about it. This just reads to me like an over-hyped "Springer" episode with a gun instead of a fist fight. The laptop was never shown in any kind of working order, so for all we really know, this was a broken laptop that he intended to throw out anyway and decided to use as he filmed his temper-tantrum.

As a father, while some of the points he brings up are valid to a rebelious child, this is a conversation that should be taking place in front of the child IMO, not on the intertubes for all to see. I'm not about to make my child a public example to anyone other than their siblings, but we can take that as a difference of parenting styles. Making his daughter a laughing stock makes her look bad and makes him look bad. To me, this is as "bad" as was her temper tantrum on the book of faces. His just involved bullets. The lesson being, don't anger me or I'll break your crap. Maybe he was at the end of his rope with this "rebellious 15 year old girl" and this was the only option left in his mind. But, I doubt that was the true "last option".

I don't know the details, the family or the egregiousness of her post. I agree it was disrespectful. If it wasn't the first time, perhaps permanent removal of the device was necessary. But, this just looks more to me like self aggrandizing showmanship for the sake of showing off on the internet than actual, well-reasoned punishment, that I believe she probably deserved if the story he told was true.

At the end of the day, it's really easy to point and say X or Y is right or wrong. But, as a skeptic and a father, these are some of my concerns with this particular video. I'm not siding with anyone here, just saying that one tempertantrum doesn't take a tempertantrum as a response.

Before you ask, I think forcing her to sell the laptop or volunteering her to donate the laptop would've been "better" for my style of parenting. Making her see it go to someone who would appreciate it and use it for something other than disrespect, etc. Also, I'd not record a youtube video for the world to be able to make fun of my child in the name of "tough love"...

[Ian]

It's a video of a dude with a cowboy hat and a cigarette making fun of his daughter and then shooting her laptop with a .45. It's a stupid youtube video... you watch it, chuckle a bit, and go do something else.

None of us know the family. The daughter is never mentioned by name. It's really not a big deal.

You can argue the pros and cons to parenting and whatnot but one thing my dad always told me was "never tell someone how to raise their children".

[Kanvass]

Her name is hannah. He says it several times. Though I agree with you other than that one point.

[Kraut]

I've been in a similar situation when I was young. I forget the details, but the essential story was I disobeyed my parents so my mom took one of my favorite toys/gadgets (can't remember for the life of me what it was) to my dad's workshop and "broke" it (actually, she smashed an empty glass jar, I wasn't in the room, only heard the smash). You better believe it had an effect on me and I shaped up (for the most part :/).
My dad tossed out over $100 worth of Pokemon cards (back when they were first getting popular) as punishment for bad grades in elementary school. Those items were luxuries for me. I was fortunate to have them in the first place. This girl was lucky to even have a laptop given to her and she went an abused her privilege. The only PC I had was the one I bought with money I earned at a summer job when I was 15. My parents respected that I earned the money. I didn't always have Internet access and I almost never got the newest and latest stuff. I got a Playstation 1 five months after Playstation 2 came out.
Of course, my mom also spanked me with a leather belt (my dad only had to threaten me, that was good enough) whenever I deserved it, and I did too often. Were they horrible people? Hell no, they did what they had to do when I tested them to that point.
Even when I was a teenager, there were times I could tell I just wanted to disobey my parents for the sake of disobeying, but I knew better than to push it over the edge.

As for making it public, he stated it pretty clearly that because she decided to make her bitching public, he was going to make her punishment public. He's also stated he never intended for this to get this big. How many other billions of videos are on YT that nobody sees?
He could've done a number of things with that laptop, but again it's his property and he can do as he pleases with it. Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. He did was he did, and it sends a very clear and strong message.
His daughter has a serious attitude problem, as evidenced from her FB rant (you can see he read it verbatim, per the link) and needs a major attitude adjustment. She needs a huge piece of humble pie to bring her down from her entitlement mind-set. I don’t know if you can tell, but I have zero sympathy or respect for this brat.

And if anyone seriously thinks this man is capable of turning a gun on his own family... I don't even know how to respond to you.

[Ian]

She'll realize one day that she has a great dad.

[mayonnaiseplant]

Ian, on 14 February 2012 - 12:11 AM, said:

She'll realize one day that she has a great dad.

Agreed. Excessive or not at least the dad cares enough to actually be involved with his child's development. More than I can say about most parents I see these days.