The harsh reality is that none of our children are flawless, despite our best efforts to think otherwise.
I’m not saying that most parents aren’t doing a good job; far from it. What I’m saying is that childhood is a time of rapid learning, during which almost everyone will make mistakes that they will later regret.
Perhaps more important than the actual events in these situations is how the child handles the situation, grows from it, and moves on.
This is the exact reason we introduce the idea of punishment at a young age: when a child misbehaves, they must bear the repercussions of their actions. They learn a small lesson from it, and maybe* they won’t repeat the same action.
Of course, there is a wide range of punishments available, from a symbolic smack on the wrist to techniques that the offending child is unlikely to forget.
Either way, one father’s decision for his daughter most definitely falls under the later of those two groups. She was overheard making fun of a fellow pupil who was balding after treatment. It’s easy to assume that her father wasn’t impressed when he learned.
He made the decision to take action to make sure she didn’t do it again. In order for her to understand what it was like to be in her victim’s position, he shaved her head bald.
He has undoubtedly received a lot of backlash online for his scolding technique, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. Conversely, he told CafeMom that he believed it to be a very appropriate response.
To add to the turmoil, he also revealed to CafeMom that his daughter is seeing the other girl’s ex-boyfriend.
They were fighting in class over petty teenage rumors about the boyfriend of my daughter. The other girl called my daughter a slupt and at one point said that her boyfriend was only using her for sex—I was actually shocked to learn that she was sexually active.
