Father teaches daughter a lesson about facebook...

[JHB]

61. Both, IMO

Last edited Fri Feb 10, 2012, 12:33 PM - Edit history (3)

Admittedly, I don't have kids so I've never been pushed near that point.

I can say, both from observation and experience, it does not help matters any to act like you believe you have an absolute right to destroy the kid's stuff. Not just take away use, but outright destroy. And it doesn't make much difference if it is something that is only "theirs" in the sense that it is theirs to primarily use but the parents paid for (it can be worse, though, if it was something the kid paid for so it is theirs however you want to define it). Just that naked display of vicious authority does real damage.

Of course, having sailed way over that hurdle, we get to the gun issue. Back in the day, my takeaway from a demonstration like this would have been "And you're lucky that this time it was only your thing. I have the right to shoot you if I feel like it, and don't you forget it."

If shooting is a stress reliever for you, go to the range and go through paper targets. If you're using it for "demonstrations", you've gone too far. If you've demonstrated to the world that you don't restrain yourself from using your guns just because you're pissed off, the rest of the world has to wonder how well you will (or won't) control yourself next time you get pissed off.

At the very least, he's pushing the kid to act out in ways that will be much more harmful (ultimately to herself) than petulant pissing and moaning on Facebook.

Whatever his intent, he's a jackass and making it worse.

(added on edit): I also have to say, from what I've picked up of "good parenting tactics" from my parents, siblings with their kids, and others, a smarter move would have been to let this slip at some later date as part of some other lesson. Not throwing it in her face, but in a way that leaves here wondering when and how you found out about it, and implying that you had chosen not to act on it. It would at least be a lot less likely to turn the confrontation into a contest of wills where the "winner" is the one who doesn't give a damn about the consequences.