What I saw was a grown man having a temper tantrum. With a gun.
You might want to look at this post that he also made on his facebook page...concerns your concerns about his parenting skills:
And OK, so THAT brings me to a topic I’ll close with, though I had no intention of speaking on it when I started this rant. (Hey, aren’t the 25 thousand of you who subscribed really regretting it now? I’m always this scatter brained. Makes you wonder how I formed enough sensible sentences to write a book doesn’t it? Then again... maybe that accounts for the book sales being in the toilet...)
So, my last point:
I’ve received a LOT of comments (and by lot you have to understand there’s literally MILLIONS of them. I’ll likely never be able to read them all in my lifetime) pointing out that I was raised old fashioned apparently that that I needed to learn to be a parent in today’s world.
Umm.. is there a polite way to call bull***t!?
The kids today ARE self entitled, spoiled, adverse to working, and basically have NO usable skills taught to them in schools. (Yes some of you out there excel. If you’ve graduated high school and at least pay some of your own bills, then I’m not talking to you. If you however are 25 and live with your parents because you’re too lazy to get a job, then yes, I’m talking to you. Half of that is the parent’s fault for thinking that the school system is supposed to raise their kids. The other half is a parent’s fault for letting our school systems get to the utterly pathetic state they are in. It’s your kid.. so no matter what it’s ALWAYS your fault.. get it?
I’ll give you a real example from the NC school system. My daughter just finished Honors Geometry in school. Halfway through the semester she asks me “Dad, can you help me type this math problem into your graphing calculator? I can’t get the equation to come out right.” I said “sure” and went over to help out. The problem was about calculating the tangent of a line, but I can’t remember the specifics of it at the moment. I took a look at it and said “Honey, why don’t you just do the problem manually... you know, on a piece of paper? It’s pretty easy.”
She honestly looked at me like I was a complete idiot! “You can’t do it with a pencil and paper, Dad. Sheesh!”
I stared at her dumbfounded. “Honey, you DO know that tangential math has been around since the 1600s, right? Over 500 years. Long BEFORE graphing calculators existed..., right?”
Her response was “Well, we’re not taught that. We’re just taught how to enter it into a calculator and get the right answer.”
Absolutely SURE she must be crazy, I checked.... and she’s right. HONORS mathematics at the high school level doesn’t teach kids basic math principles. At all!!! If a modern honors geometry student had to calculate the distance of a line from the top of a flag pole to any point in space relative to the ground.. they have no idea how to do it. (How many of you just asked your kids to show you how to do that? Wait... how many more are Googling it right now? Stop. That’s cheating.)
Further, almost every state now is taking “writing” out of schools. Kids are now being taught to print, and that’s it. No need for actual writing because they all have computers. I’m NOT making this up! This is TRUE!! They learn the alphabetic characters... and nothing more. The age of eloquent thought borne by patient strokes of pen to paper... are gone like Rhett Butler’s sex appeal.
So let me recap... you don’t learn math, you don’t learn to write actual words without the benefit of spell-check. You don’t apparently learn grammar either because I’ve SEEN those text books and quizzes.. horrible.
Yet you want ME to stop raising MY child with old fashioned methods that actually made me fairly intelligent, capable of fending for myself, capable of managing money, holding a job, respecting my elders, etc?
So you can replace it with what? You want to teach kids it’s OK to talk back to parents as long as they have the freedom to express themselves. You want to outlaw spankings. You’ve obviously made it OK for them to be stupid upon graduating high school. You’ve recently made it illegal for kids to work around any animal that can harm them under the age of 18, to include working in hay lofts, around dogs, or cats, horses, or cattle, etc. (Thanks for that law Obama.. idiot) You won’t let them work in a restaurant that serves alcohol until 18 in most states. You won’t let them work at ALL until 15 (It was 13 for me, but Dad lied and got me started when I was 12). When are they supposed to learn actual adult stuff exactly? When do they learn responsibility? No kid left behind? Pfft.. EVERY kid left behind! (Dang I’m mad now.. maybe I WILL run for President... no, wife already vetoed that one. I’d really love to though.. really, seriously!)
“Modern” parenting raises ill-prepared kids who can’t do anything and have no skills because they’re protected from even LEARNING them until 18 years old, at which time you want us parents to throw them out into the world, send them off to college, and expect them to be productive members of society? You can take your “modern” parenting, and shove it. Jeezus people. Half of you think chores at 15 are too much! God forbid we make them actually WORK too!
(packing my soapbox away and going to bed now)
I'm certain many would say the same thing unless they thought about it for a little while.
What you had here was a 15 year old girl building a flawed ego and attempting to display it in a public setting in front of her peers. I'm sure her "letter" was written out of frustration, but it was done using a flawed perspective of reality and a goal of humiliating her parents in a public setting.
In her letter of contempt, she showed no willingness to attempt restraint and took a private family matter into the public. It was done to vent, try and garner support for what she views as her suffering" and to put her parents on defense.
The father needed to prove a few things. First, "I'll always up the ante no matter HOW high you bet". Second, he needed to make a spectacle that she wouldn't soon forget. Third, he needed to show her how humiliating it can be when you publicly air your internal family matters and finally, he had to destroy that flawed ego in the same setting where it was used against him and show her that everything she is, hand everything she has is a direct product of HIS efforts... He want for her to change that by getting a job.
I think he managed the whole thing pretty well, considering. In hindsight, I'm sure he wishes he would have waited a day until he wasn't so angry and hurt, but that's hindsight and we can all find enough fault in our own actions to keep us busy with that.
I think he accomplished the goals.
She will never again take a private matter to the public.
She now understand who the REAL owner of her property is since she won't work for it.
She now knows to NEVER challenge the authority of her father. He just might react in a completely unexpected way.
She now knows if you are going to play adult games, there will be embarrassing adult consequences.
Above all, I think watching her father stutter and spit for 8 minutes while trying to control his rage has shown her that her Dad is a real person with real feelings. Hopefully, she has learned to be more considerate of that reality and show him the respect he deserves.