Have you seen the video of the dad shooting his daughter’s laptop after she allegedly posted a long whinefest in the form of a letter to her parents that she thought they couldn’t see?
If you haven’t, it’s about time you did: the video has already gotten more than 2.1 million hits.
There’s a little salty language, but that’s the sad part: most of the salty language is coming from a 16-year-old girl, according to her father, who says he’s reading out loud what she wrote for the world — or at least the part of it that can get past her account’s privacy settings — to see.
The man claims to be an IT professional, and that he discovered the post on her Facebook account after installing about $130 worth of software on her laptop. He also mentions that she’d been grounded once before for a similar stunt.
In the video, he says that the post was titled, “To My Parents,” and begins with the line, “I’m not your damned slave.”
Oh, yeah, that’s going to go over very well.
Go ahead, have a look:
While it appears the original Facebook post of this video has vanished, the YouTube version is still there, and in the description, the dad says that his daughter is getting a dose of tough love.
He even says he’s expecting her to reimburse him for the bullets, which are more expensive than average bullets because they’re hollow point.
Sure, he could have taken the computer and donated it to a school so that a child who might be in need could benefit from it.
But it’s clear he wanted to make a point in a big way. And I believe, without talking to his daughter, that he probably did.
What really surprises me is that I’ve watched a few video responses on YouTube posted by teenagers. What I would have expected is to see all of them defending the girl, whining about her right to express herself and championing her as some kind of sweatshop laborer.
But no, all of the ones I watched side with the dad, calling him “awesome” and saluting him for the way he handled the situation.
I am not making this up.
Your Turn:
Do you think the father was right to take such an extreme measure? Can you imagine that it ever would be right, no matter what his daughter might have said, to do such a thing?
It was probably just that this was all unrehearsed on his part, but the bit where he says “. . . other parents may get an idea to put a bullet in their own kid’s ass” just didn’t sound good to me.
If this guy really does work in IT, he knew this would go viral. I understand he’s angry and frustrated, and that he wanted to make a point. But clearly no matter what field one works in, or what training or education one has been through, you can’t get the redneck out of him. Guns are for self-defense. This isn’t self-defense.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I just have a hard time with the father’s decision.
I agree that the daughter should have a part-time job (because it is so important that children start learning how to be a good employee and the value of a dollar) and that she should do chores around the house. I do have a big problem with the child’s attitude, as well. However, I have to wonder how her father was able to read her facebook post if she had it blocked from her parent’s view and I have to wonder why he felt he need to go to this extreme. (And yes. I do understand his anger. I’ve been there. Believe me.)
I seriously believe that almost all teenagers go through stages where they feel like this girl does – that is, those who aren’t handed everything they want and are expected to do chores around the house. There are many different ways of handling this sort of situation, however, and I feel this might not be the best approach.
Instead of attempting to show his daughter her error in thinking by talking to her, he tells her that she is not allowed to express her opinion. Instead of trying to help her mature out of this attitude, he is shutting down communication with her. I can’t see that his actions will improve their relationship nor her attitude.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. You may have a different one.
@Cathryn (aka Strange) I don’t know that it’s a case of him telling her that she can’t express an opinion; I think it’s a case of him telling her that she can’t be so blatantly disrespectful to her parents and others in a public forum.
Because he installed (or upgraded) software on her computer, it’s possible that she had an auto-login on her Facebook account on her web browser, and he could have seen it that way. Just a guess, there.
@patricksplace@Cathryn (aka Strange) Before he made his Fb page private I was able to see some of this back-story: he was able to access her tirade because she blocked her parents BUT not the account they had set up for their dog (ok, yeah, this doesn’t help them look brilliant, I know). Dad posted a picture on that and in the process came across the daughter’s rant, and went (quite literally) ballistic.Not sure how being an IT person makes him more likely to have found this, though.
I hate waste, and it bothers me that he ruined a perfectly good computer. He could have sold it, or as you say, donated it. To totally ruin it was stupid. As far as punishment, I don’t think he went overboard.
I’ve been this angry. Teenagers are not pleasant to be around. I don’t have a gun in the house, and this is a good reason why. 😉
My parents threw away my sister’s clothes once, because she never picked them up off the floor. Is that extreme?
Honestly, I think the guy over-reacted by taping this and posting it, but I totally side with his right to make the point to his daughter. Sure, I could think of a million different–and IMHO, better–ways to make that point, but speaking as someone who was one digit away from calling the cops on her son about three years ago, I totally know that sense of frustration.