Face book parenting: For the troubled teen

Nah! my 9MM Beretta 92F with my Eagle Black Talon loads would do the same as his .45 I am just a little leary of his being somewhere with passing traffic visible in the background. I would have gone to an approved shooting range to let it rip.

I agree that this man's daughter needed to be disciplined, but I think Dad severely overreacted to what she did. She mouthed off about Mom and Dad. EVERY teen mouths off about Mom and Dad. The only difference between most of us and her is that we didn't have Facebook when we did it. We mouthed off verbally to our friends in the school cafeteria, and Mom and Dad never found out about it.

Dad comes off like an emotionally abusive control freak who reacts with anger instead of reason. If he'd been thinking, would he have destroyed a perfectly good laptop that had just been upgraded? No...he would've kept it until he'd cooled off, or kept it for his own use, or donated it to charity. He should stop worrying about whether his daughter appears to respect him and start worrying about why she doesn't respect him.

I absolutely love this guy! I would have had her facebook page -with the comment posted- open and used a rifle to the screen, but his little gun works too.

Seriously, guys, if Dad's reaction to daughter's dissing her parents on Facebook is to shoot her PC and ground her till college (which means at least two years if she's 15 now), what's he going to do if he find out she's using drugs? Shoplifting? Bullying other kids? If she and her boyfriend hotwire a car for a joyride and get caught? If she comes home pregnant? What worse punishment is there? Kick her out on the streets at 15? Beat her till she's bruised and bloody? Shoot her?

you have no idea what the background of the situation is, or what the previous incident was. Sometimes it takes drastic measures to get through to teens. The father came across as calm, but fed up. If being grounded for 3 months taught the daughter nothing, hopefully this does.

I support this guy sometimes trying to get a teenagers attention is impossible. I am glad to see a parent taking an active role in disciplining their child. So many parents today want to be their kid's friend that there is no parenting anywhere. So way to go Dad!

I think what he did was extreme yes.... but if I spent hundreds of bucks on a pc that was used to say im a horrible parent.... yeah... I may not shoot it, but they would have to pay for everything I just did to them. And yeah... we dont have the full details leading up to this, but from the sounds of it... he has a daughter thats very disrespectful who expects the world to be handed to her.

Holy Moly...

I'm shocked, just utterly shocked. Do I love his F*U method of responding in kind on Facebook. Oh H*** Yes. DO I think he should have shot her laptop!? Ummmm... oh my god.

I've got three teens and computer time is a VALUABLE commodity in our hours, because even though we have more internet access devices in our house for more than twice the number of people. The guys can't really game on the Macs, and a couple people don't like to share, and two of the computers are OLD. So we've got some serious time management plans in place. I would NEVER EVER be willing to go down a computer in such a way just because I was mad at my kid.

That's one mad Papa. I hope that she got the point this time.

My other thought is that my kids get paid for their chores, it's called an allowance. It's not much, but lets them know that their contributions are appreciated.

I think everyone's opinion is partially right. I tend to think that:

a.) I strongly agree that Teenagers are horrible and if writing a bratty thing on FB is the worst thing your kid does, you're doing pretty well.
b.) It's a bit extreme of a punishment for being a brat, but honestly if he had just taken the PC away would it have seemed that extreme? Not really to me.
c.) To me the biggest part is that it became so public, which I'm not sure he even intended. I'm sure he didn't intend it to be this public and I'm not sure if he meant it to be that public at all. So if you just look at it and say "Bratty teenager had her PC taken away for mouthing off" it doesn't sound that bad to me.

and never forget:

d.) Regardless of your opinions on gun safety...shooting stuff is pretty fun.

I agree, we don't know this family's background. Yes, daughter was highly disrespectful and deserved to be disciplined. Yes, her Facebook post made her sound like a first-rate brat. But I still think Dad seriously overreacted. Daughter didn't diss the parents to their faces or even in public. She did it in a Facebook post that was filtered for her friends' eyes only. Dad hacked her account and found it. I firmly believe Dad has a right and obligation to monitor his kids' Internet use, but still, she had enough respect (or fear?) not to cuss him out to his face.

ALL teens diss their parents among their friends from time to time. Most of us just never got caught. If my dad had done something this severe because he found out I bad-mouthed him to my friends, frankly, we would no longer have any kind of relationship.

And remember, not knowing the full story means we don't know Dad's background, either. Does this video make him seem like a parent who knows the meaning of the term unconditional love? Who understands that kids are naturally immature, self-centered, and occasionally stupid because their brains haven't fully developed yet? Who views discipline as guidance as opposed to vengeance? Yeah...I didn't think so, either.

I did think Dad's responding via Facebook was pretty cool. I just wish he'd seemed less vindictive and had made the punishment fit the "crime."