Dad Takes Umbrage With Daughter's Facebook Insubordination, Shoots Her Laptop

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I was actually JUST talking about this with my friends. One of them thought it was completely deserved (and awesome) and the other thought it was just kinda scary. I personally think that, yeah, it's a bit crazy that he decided to shoot it, but I also admire the creativity behind it, and it sounds like it got the job done, so....I approve.

And that statement the OP edited in was very classy, especially the bit about how there's "real issues" that better deserve the media's attention. I've decided I like this guy.

 

[CrystalShadow]

'My daughter was mean to me on facebook. waaah.'

Grow the fuck up, yes children can be hard to deal with sometimes and yes this may seem funny, but the man has taken something that to a teenager is extremely personal and part of their daily life.

It probably contained photo's of her and her family, friends, pets and access to online accounts and was personalized to a very high level.

Shooting it is moronic and immature and when you think about it unsettling, the man is reprimanding his daughter with a firearm, does no one else see the problem here?

He had just video taped himself shooting the laptop, a representation of her online persona and then more than showed it to her, guess who he was talking about while shooting the laptop, this is the stuff that destroys children subconsciously.

My parents weren't the best, one of them drunk a lot the other was overworked, the firm;y subscribed to the if you mess about learn to deal with it line of thought; they however knew when they had taken it too far.

And this is taking it too far.

Ohhh nooooo, she is having a luxury taken away from her, someone call child protective services; SHE CANT ACCESS FACEBOOK!!!

If she wanted to keep all that stuff she shouldn't have been an ungrateful brat. Its no different than if he had broken it on the floor by slamming it down, r taken a sledgehammer to it, the only reason you are freaking out is because he used a gun, stop trying to be a sensationalist, its just a tool.

Ehm. I have an instinctively bad reaction to anyone destroying a computer. Or to be more precise, I get that reaction to the thought of someone destroying data.

(so if the hard drive's OK, it tends not to bother me quite so much.)

It's the same kind of thing as burning books, or destroying works of art.
(If we're talking my own personal computer for instance, it in some regards would literally constitute both.)

The thing is, there are literally things on my computer that cannot be replaced (backups notwithstanding.)

Do I care if my computer stops working? Not really. Sure it's expensive, and I'm poor, but whatever. One computer is much like any other.

Do I care if I lose the data stored on my computer? You'd better believe it!
Much of it is irreplaceable, and no amount of money could get it back.

Of course, I'm obsessive enough to apply that logic to the save-games for things I haven't played in 10 years... >_>

Destroying things which cannot be replaced however just doesn't sit well with me, no matter how stupid those things might be.

 

[Bat Vader]

At around the thirty-five or forty second mark he said that he works in IT for a living. The issue was his daughter posting a nasty comment about them and insulting them on Facebook. His daughter was the problem, not Facebook. He also stated that in the video that his daughter did this before as well. If she had learned her lesson the first time he would not have shot her laptop.

It is her own fault for acting like a brat.

Oh, so lemme get this straight. An IT guy gets mad at his daughter and decides to shoot a computer. An IT guy? That makes him even dumber. A man who values technology blows it away, wastefally. I believe that's what ya call a damn shame, ironic even.

If he works in IT I would not consider him dumb. It is the daughters own fault he destroyed her laptop. If she has learned her lesson the first time none of this would have happened.

 

[Ando85]

Like it or not this guy was pretty clever. Public humiliation, no internet access for years, destroyed lap top. The majority of people thought what he did was good parenting and approved it.

Compare this to the Judge beating daughter stink a few months ago. Everyone thought he was a horrible child beating asshole that deserved to go to jail for child abuse.

I'd much much rather get my ass beat a few times than have my computer and access to the internet destroyed for years.

 

[Ympulse]

Some people in here apparently haven't left their parent's houses.

Good on the man. Children need to be taught that actions have consequences. Absolutely and irreversibly destroying a luxury important to her sends one hell of a message, but after reading the entire OP, she deserved it without question.

Better than getting beat, which would happen in most families in the Carolinas.

 

[Irridium]

Her father gave her a warning, she ignored it, he followed through with his warning.

So... what's the problem here? Seriously, after reading the father's whole response... he seems like a very level-headed, good man who simply followed through with his promise to punish her.

 

[Suicidejim]

I couldn't care less about the incident, I simply wish more people would take 'umbrage' with things. No more of this uncivilized 'getting angry' or 'taking issue,' we all need a little more umbrage going on.

 

[Noble_Lance]

Wait a second, he's a cowboy type of man and IT with guns?


-mind blown-

 

[Canadamus Prime]

That's seems more than a little excessive. He could've just confiscated it and had her earn it back or something.

 

[michael87cn]

I salute the father. Now that's a good dad.

Too many parents are too scared of their own children to stand up to them.

Also, I get the distinct impression that A LOT of people are commenting without even watching the video. After you watch it, you can't help but sympathize with him. The things his daughter says were terrible.

 

[michael87cn]

That's seems more than a little excessive. He could've just confiscated it and had her earn it back or something.

Yeah em.... know what the daughter would think of that? "PFFFTTT!! *laughs at her father*"

You have to be harsh with kids, or they just walk right over you. Once you let them get used to punishments like "I'll take your toys away!! That'll teach you!" (it won't teach them anything) they know they can do anything to you and get away with it. Besides, "taking away" something, just means the kid waiting for you to go to work before sneaking it back.

 

[Xanthious]

Everything I've seen/read about this makes it seem as this girl was an over entitled little **** that couldn't be bothered to do a half hour's worth of work for the people who were not only feeding and clothing her but also going above and beyond their parental duties and picking up the tab for her on expensive high end electronics.

It would appear that this had been an ongoing issue within the family and traditional methods of grounding her and/or taking her things away weren't effectively getting the point across that she needed to start doing what small chores were asked of her and start showing a little respect for her parents that, by all evidence, were giving her a pretty comfortable life.

I think this is a perfect example of tough love. Maybe a big dose of public humiliation on top of having her things taken away and being grounded for a long time will cause her parents' message to sink in and teach her that it's not ok to think the world should be handed to her on a silver platter simply because she rolls her ass out of bed in the morning.

I can't say I blame this guy in the least. If I were dishing out money for smartphones and laptops and god knows what else for a child on top of feeding, clothing, and putting a roof over their head and they went and blasted me on Facebook like that they would come home to a room with a bed, a desk and four blank walls and the prior contents of said room donated to charity. The only thing I'd permit them to take into the room would be school work and they'd be allowed out to use the bathroom, shower, and go to school. They wouldn't be allowed near a TV, computer, radio, or phone for anything outside of school work and even that would be done under close supervision. And you can bet their time in said room would be measured in months rather than days or weeks.

 

[YicklePigeon]

From the video, and the added statement, I get the general impression that the daughter had many a chance and had (essentially) a life of luxury. And like most teenagers, thought their respective lives were "ever so hard" - the same stereotype usually self-applied to the Emo types of this world.

As it is she's 15, hasn't a clue and puts up a nasty post on Facebook trashing her parents and the woman who comes to help out with the household chores. In the end, its not about who the post was aimed towards, but the content and the vile nature of it. If she isn't suitably chastised, then she'll "forget" and whatever punishment that was metered out also forgotten. Which, apparently, did happen in prior instances of her poor behaviour.

But don't get me wrong, my knee-jerk reaction can be summed up as "Crikey, that's a bit much!" but I watched the entire video and read the statement to put together as much of the facts as I could surmise, combined with my own experiences when I was her age (1999) and the teenage children of friends of mine over the years.

And after doing that? The actions taken are justified. She needed to be publicly ridiculed (and lets not forget that the entire world was not the target, just her friends - and respective parents - in addition to his friends as well), she's 15 and simply confiscating doesn't work at that age and will very soon be mixing almost exclusively with adults, with consequences far more severe than having a full clip be fired into her laptop. That her dad had spent 6 hours of his life upgrading and setting it up just right.

That last point will be lost on those who've never had to spend so much time fixing up a laptop, those of us who have will understand completely and wouldn't have needed as much reason to shoot the damned thing!

So far then, to answer the OP's question, I'm on the Dad's side. The only parts I'd be on the daughter's side would be in finding work that would be legal for her to do (hours wise!), only because its difficult for those 18+ to find work to sustain themselves; let alone someone who is 15! The world he speaks of (being a volunteer fireman, working two jobs, living alone and studying too) doesn't exist anymore. Indeed, the 16 year-olds of today - in the same or very similar circumstances to his 16 year-old self from back in the day - would find it far more difficult to find a place to live; to find one job (let alone two!); to afford to study and find the time to volunteer for anything. When he got to that bit, he just made me think of all the 40+ "already old in their heads" people who rant on about how "they did so much with so little and we managed!" which whilst good for them, is just not possible now.

But that's the only criticism I have as regards the Dad's attitude, I realise he was just trying to impress upon her how easy she has it but think back to when your parent(s) have said the same. Did you pay attention or just feel nauseous and mentally putting everything they're saying in the recycle bin? I'd bet money that's what the daughter was doing prior to this.

Go Dad! XD

 

[Paradoxrifts]

While that taken on face value was completely awesome, I can't shake a niggling sense of doubt about the way the father treats the fact that her brother wakes her up in the mornings as some sort of joke. Reading between the lines I can see a situation where the busy parents are relying on her to parent her younger sibling by proxy and clean up after his mess, creating a situation wherein everything the younger sibling does wrong is the fault of the elder sibling but the younger sibling can do no wrong because according to the parents he is too young to be fully accountable for his actions.

But that's pure conjecture.

But I will point out the following, while people can gather round and compete with one another to give the father his congratulatory hand-job, it still doesn't change the fact that he is somewhere between a below average to flat out bad parent. Even if you agree with him in that he's completely one hundred percent right in unloading hot lead into her personal computer does not change the fact that he raised an ungrateful ***** for a daughter.

His heart does seem to be in the right place however and I hope things work out alright between him and his daughter. She's probably just like him but younger and stupider, because the apple seldom falls far from the tree, right?

 

[dragonsshunter]

I tweeted about this after watching it last night. honestly if the girl you has everything handed to her is complaining about having a hard life, and bitches about her parents being mean. i cannot argue or disagree with anything he did, hell i would shake his hand. as far as im concerned i hate and refuse to use facebook.

 

[Aethren]

I fully support this guy, he's a great dad.