Woman forces stepdaughter to wear dowdy thrift store clothes as punishment for bullying

[haele]

230. In a case like this, my step-daughter's mother would have encouraged the bullying -

And I suspect that if the girl was showing any inclination to stop bullying, the father knew what the step-mother was going to do and probably approved. Step-mom might have bought the clothes, but there's a 90% chance that Dad was the one who told the girl when she objected "if she says that's what you wear to school for a week, you're going to wear that to school...".

An object lesson like this might work. It all depends on the child and the motivations behind the bullying.

While this might "kill" all hope of self-confidence in someone who is being vicious to others because of social anxiety, it teaches a sharp lesson in reality to the mean children who are being casually vicious because they feel they can. The sad truth is that a lot of parents of bullies teach children they should bully, because otherwise, those other lesser children might get uppity on them. That's one of the reasons the first wife is now an ex-wife...she did a lot of damage to the kidlet with her own casual, institutionally-sanctioned (from a "good family" in a small southern town) bullying.

A little short-term ridicule knocks a child with excessive pride issues down a peg or two much easier than cold, hard reality does later on after the child moves out of the home - expecially if the parent(s) using this method does so evenly and fearless of appearing ridiculous him/her self.

This was a "do looks really matter?" object-lesson. Discipline comes in many forms, not just punishment, and a disciplinarian doesn't have to be the enforcer of rules, the one who with-holds goodies and tells the child what they are doing wrong or how disappointed they are. The disciplinarian is also the teacher and guide, the one who says "you could be doing better, and I'll show you how".

My two cents. And I also was the one going out in fuzzy slippers and a crazy-cat lady sweater from the 1980's to look for the kidlet when she broke curfew. I was also the one who would obnoxiously sing off key, take the sass, and totally embarrassed her fearlessly being either a "know-it-all" or "kewl stepmom" and waiting it out until I ruined the party or she broke down and came home.

Haele