Video: Watch How Dad Makes Son Pay For Failing Grades — Cruel Punishment, Or ‘Point Made!’
A video went viral this week showing a novel punishment doled out by a dad to his son who apparently came home with failing grades from school. While there’s not much detail available on who the dad and son are or where they are located, the video has sparked online debate over whether the punishment is appropriate, or if the dad is simply bullying his son.
Check out the video above and decide — are there more effective ways to motivate a kid to learn?
If you can’t figure out exactly what’s going on in the viral video — which has been reposted numerous times on YouTube, making an accurate count of views nearly impossible — we’ll make it clear.
That object on the ground? That’s the boy’s Xbox video game console. That object in the kid’s hands? Well, you can probably figure that out. That’s a sledgehammer.
The dad’s punishment for his academically deficient son was to force the boy to smash his own Xbox with a sledgehammer — while the father captures the whole thing on video.
And then the father — or someone — posted the video online.
The video was first noticed by users on the popular internet forum Reddit, who had varying reactions.
“I would not have had the kid smash it,” said one. “I would have just taken them away until his grades got better.”
“Recording it and putting it on the internet for gratification?” said another. “The dad’s a douche.”
Another noticed that the boy in the video, obviously upset about being forced to smash his own Xbox, repeats the protest, “It’s not my fault!” over and over, claiming that he did nothing to deserve the bad grades — his teacher just wanted to fail him for some arbitrary reason.
“Maybe this kid just needs more accountability? He’s constantly saying ‘it’s not my fault,’ so maybe seeing how his Xbox was destroyed would make him more responsible with his schoolwork. This parenting is really harsh, but considering he had TWO consoles he might have opportunities to reclaim his prize with a strong school effort,” said one Reddit commenter.
Perhaps most poignantly, one commenter recalled that his own father used the same type of discipline, destroying toys as a form of discipline — and how this type of punishment stayed with him into adulthood, and not in a good way.
“My point of all this is that I don’t like my dad at all now. I still talk to him sometimes. He’s going through a very stressful situation in his life right now and has been trying to call me for two weeks. I haven’t made the time to talk to him. He even said to my sister that no one cares about his current situation and I really don’t. My sister doesn’t either. She laughed at him when he told her,” the commenter said.
“So for the parents that do this type of stuff to their kids, I would say don’t. I know everyone is different but I doubt you want your kids to feel the way my and my sister do towards our dad. I’m sure there’s good parenting books that would help raise kids. I’m not a parent so I don’t know of any,” the commenter concluded.
The video of the dad forcing his son to smash his Xbox for failing grades is headlined “Good Parenting!” on YouTube. Is it? Or is this dad just cruel?
[Image: YouTube Screen Grab]
