A mom named Molly Wooden from Fort Hood, Texas, was impressed by the parenting style of another mother named Nicki Quinn, whom she came across while shopping at a Hobby Lobby.
Wooden visited the bathroom at the store with her own 4-year-old when she came across Quinn struggling to get her son to behave. She punished him by having him do pushups on the bathroom floor in order to teach him to act respectfully. Wooden was inspired with this mother’s creative punishment, and shared the story on Facebook in a post that has since gone viral, and has received primarily positive reactions.
“I was standing there in awe. I was like, ‘Yes! You are amazing! I’m getting chills in this bathroom right now!’” Wooden wrote in the post, praising the mother for not losing her cool, even after her son talked back to her.
Wooden said that she admired Quinn’s ability to discipline her son right away rather than worrying about what people might say, emphasizing that she personally would have applauded her had her hands not been full.
“We need more parents like you, who aren’t afraid to parent their own children because of what someone else might think,” she said.
The two moms were able to connect through social media as a result of the viral post, and Quinn had a chance to share her side of the story. As it turns out, Quinn is parenting her kids on her own right now because her husband is currently deployed. She started the pushup system as a form of discipline in her home as a way to teach her son respect for others.
“I gotta do what I have to do to make sure my son is respectful to me, because when he’s respectful to me, he’s going to respect everyone else, like his teachers and his fellow students,” she said.
While she was admittedly overwhelmed by the attention Wooden’s post brought her, Quinn did appreciate the support, not only from her but from many other mothers across the nation. She also appreciates the way this post has started a conversation about alternative forms of discipline and instilling respect upon children.
“At the end of the day, we started a debate about something,” she said.
This isn’t the first time unusual parenting techniques have earned national attention. As The Inquisitr previously reported, a father from Oregon received backlash for using a leash on a toddler.
