Was reading the news about a NC dad who pelted his 15yo daughter’s laptop for posting a rude piece about her parents on Facebook. Have you heard? Well, he posted a video response on her FB wall reprimanding her and then ended up firing 9 rounds into her laptop.
I can so see why he flew into a rage when he read the things she wrote. Frankly I would’ve too. She was ranting (with a healthy dose of expletives) about how she had to do chores around the house (like sweeping the floor and making her own bed, wow!) and saying that (get this!) her parents should pay her for doing stuff around the house.
That, if you ask me, was totally disrespectful and downright unacceptable! I’ll say he had every reason to be angry and disappointed but well, okay, his reaction might’ve been ju-ust a tad over the top
.
I have to admit that at one point, I was contemplating if I should pay my son to wash my minivan. Many parents pay their kids to do chores around the house, to help out, even to score good grades in their exams (wow, this one’s really got me
). I know.
Well, at first, I thought it might be a good way for them to learn how to manage their money. Then again, they can always learn to do that with their allowance, right? So I changed my mind before I started what might’ve been a dangerous precedence for turning money into an incentive for everything they do.
Turns out Tommy Jordan, the laptop-shooting daddy, has it along the same lines as what I was thinking. His argument is this.
You live here in this house where we, your parents pay for everything – your laptop, your cellphone, your clothes, your shoes, your holidays, your education, your everything… And all you have to do is go to school, get driven back and forth heck, eat meals you don’t even have to cook yourself, collect your allowance and I have to pay you to do stuff around the house??!!
Indeed! Thanks for saying it out loud. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’m your parent, not your employer, and as the family, we shouldn’t be bringing dollars and cents into every little thing we do. Well, that’s just me. What do you think?