Any more back talk, young man, and those pictures of you playing dress up go straight to Flickr
These kids today. What’s a mother to do when they misbehave? Spank ‘em and you risk a visit by the social worker. Lock them in a cold, dark fruit cellar for a few weeks and … well, you can’t do that either. But, somehow, the punishment needs to fit the crime. So when Beth, a single mom from Richmond, Va., told her 13-year-old boy to stop playing on his Xbox and do his chores, and the youngster’s ill-advised response was to break the vacuum cleaner, she decided to hit him where it hurts (and her resolve only hardened after she found porn site cookies on his computer). According to Gizmodo, Beth first put the boy’s Xbox up for sale on eBay. Then she password-protected his computer so he couldn’t get online. And finally, in the unkindest cut of all, she posted a Snoopy cartoon on his MySpace page, making him look decidedly uncool. “Apparently I’m the meanest mom in the world, were his words,” she told Gizmodo. “I’m a single mom. I can’t let them walk over me or I might never get up.” Cruel? A bit. Unusual? For now. Effective in reducing recidivism? Time will tell.
Cruel? Not at all. Reality bites. Sometimes when you rock the Coke machine trying to get a free one, it falls on you.
Beth:
My congratulations to You!!! You did good! Kids gotta learn that all actions have consequences and that they have responsibilities to the family first and foremost. Game playing is exactly that: PLAYING. We play after we work, not before. The sooner he learns that lesson the better off he will be. Some never learn that lesson.
When did Snoopy become uncool?
Just spank your damn kid.
Everyone is so afraid of the “social worker” that they let their kids walk all over them. A small whack never killed anyone.
Good for you, Beth! A strong mom makes for good boys.
Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to ‘ave to get up out of shoe box at twelve o’clock at night and lick road clean with our tongues. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.
Good for Beth!!! If I had done something like break an appliance, I would have been spanked, grounded and forced to buy a new one by working off the cost. I hope she uses the funds from the console to buy herself a Dyson! Kids will try to get away with exactly as much as you allow them to.
Beth, you rock! All kids think their parents are the worst ever, only to find out - eventually - that the real world has horrendous consequences for bad behavior. Can anyone imagine breaking a company computer because a mean boss set an actually deadline? Puh-lease! Stick to your principles, and make him pay for the vacuum cleaner repair.
Great job, Beth! The kid got what he deserved. Time for him to get his face unglued from the computer screen and go out and get some fresh air and sunshine. This kind of thing should be standard practice for more parents today. We have a world full of criminals, partly because too many parents are too soft on their kids.