Dad Shot Laptop Over Daughter's Facebook Post

Sorry, forgot the link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100774/Tommy-Jordan-Police-pay-visit-father-shot-daughters-laptop-viral-video-Facebook-complaint--thank-him.html

Here's a more indepth article about this father's actions. It's a long read but interesting.

Good for dad! Honestly, no matter what the dad chose to do would have been criticized. He did the best he could on the spur of the moment. I do not believe it was poor parenting. I believe it was a good choice to fight her with the technology she uses to demean he and his wife. Dad proved he could be tech savvy, as well. Children get away with far too much. I was afraid of my parents until they passed away and I was in my 50s. Parents are not our friends, but our mentors. Children, who do not respect their parents, need to have their attitudes adjusted. Could he have done it differently? Maybe. But I applaud that he chose to do something that his daughter understood. Maybe she will think twice about her big mouth and public demeaning of the two people who do everything for her.

This guy is a complete and total asshole. I feel bad for someone having to grow up in a situation like this, it made me cringe to think about how the daughter would react to this sociopathic attack designed to inflict maximum pain...on his own daughter!!!

This man was similarly abused as a kid I'm guessing, and unfortunately he seems content to ensure that he transfers this along to his children. Someone needs to wake this fucking guy up.

When my daughter kept whining about how hard life was I explained to her how privledged she was and how hard other children have it. She didn't really grasp it. To better make my point, the next morning we walked down to the river and she had to carry back a kid sized pail of water. She's six. Saying there are kids all over the world who have to get water every morning like Jack and Jill is one thing. Actaully getting the water...in February, is what taught the lesson. Now when she starts whining all I have to say is "Do we need to go get another bucket of water?"

Explanations only go so far. All you wilting lillies don't know what you're talking about. Dad did good.

Many teenagers will push their limits as far as they can, and sometimes it takes extreme measures to show them where those limits are. This kid needed a grand gesture and got it.

However, sharing that grand gesture with the internet probably caused more harm than good for this particular family. While I am all for harsh punishment for harsh misbehavior, I would not take it public.

On the other hand, what may be harmful for this family turned out to be beneficial for others, as it has opened up a discussion not only across the internet, but probably between a lot of teenagers and their parents.

First, not everyone who owns a firearm is a "gun nut". It is quite possible the children in his family have been taught to handle weapons safety, and local law enforcement confirms his firearm is properly secured.

2nd, while giving the computer away was a option, I don't think it would have made the point as well. Or gotten the attention.

3rd. There are few, if any, perfect parents. And what works well on one problem child may not work so well on another. Parenting is not an exact science.

I have got to side with the Dad on this one.

I think he did the right thing. Now days it is getting out of control on how kids an teenagers treat their parents and loved ones. I remember being that age an my dad telling me respect, honesty, homework, an chores, Thats all i ask. My father was very hard on us and i turned out great. And i get why he did this online for everyone to see, to let them now its not cool what she, did an he does not approve what she said. When she is older and have kids of her own, she will realize that what her father did was a good thing. That he is not trying to to be mean he is trying to teach her respect, Honesty, an to do her chores. I think that was a great way to relate to her online. People say write it down to relate to her. Now days it digital so dont blame it cause the parents were relating poorly to her. Sorry but my father would have done the samething.

To all that is freaking out about what the dad did. Think about this. The dad is simply sending a message to her daughter. She obviously does not respond to normal comunication so Dad has to go the none conventional way to send the message. This is a well planed out reponse to what she did. It's not a knee jerk reaction where he just goes to her room and started blasting everything. This is not him being violent. This is a dad who cares. It amazes me how many parents I see being out smarted by their children and can't do nothing about it. Being smart is part of parenting. Being an adult parent while being out smarted by a child is rediculous. Tough parenting done the right way will make all the differenct. Just love will not raise good adults. Weak parents = disrepectful children = weak society = weak country. Everything leads back to parenting. Do you think Hitler's mom did a good job raising him?

Note how said transference easily shifts onto the father. It's not the girl's fault she relates poorly to her parents, it's her parents' fault they relate poorly to her. Some have gone as far as to call the father a "child". But with the implication that he not be absolved of the responsibility in the same manner afforded to the daughter. So he is not genuinely equated with a child. I guess my question is; if the peanut gallery is strong enough to relate better to the daughter, why aren't they strong enough to relate better to the father? You know, follow your own suggestions and be sympathetic to his plight, talk it over and try to see eye-to-eye. Say "I understand you are upset at your daughter's facebook post, but..." Instead of "The dad is a total ass."

Well that would include your response as well.

while the man's response to his daughter might be a little over the top (she sounds like she's a treat, too), i find that the responses here to his video are ridiculous.

How about trying to communicate with your child?

PS: you don't communicate with your child through videos on YouTube.

I'm with the daughter. The dad is a total ass. Not because of what's IN the video, but because OF the video. It illustrates he has no clue whatsoever.

Oh, and "the dad" is a gun nut.

This is a lost cause and it looks like it was lost already a long time ago.
My advice to the daughter: get the fuck out of there. As fast as possible.

@Bearfoot
I stand by what I said. If you were my kid, it wouldn't change anything. I'd just take money out of your Christmas fund to pay for the medical bills associated with your rebellious attitude. I'd make sure I'd tell you that too, so you would understand why Santa didn't bring you presents.

@Sam81
People were much more harsh in the past, but did you see kids running around shooting their parents all the time? No. You seem to think I'm talking about being abusive, I'm not. There's a fine balance between love and pain.

"...because using that gun is just too much of a threatening, horrible scare tactic."

The kid doesn't care by what means he destroyed the laptop (gun, car, hammer, gravity, etc), the only thing it sees or cares about is the fact that its laptop is gone.

Brilliant.Maybe if all the parents that let their children get away with disrespecting them online would take more of an interest in what they write the youth would not be so removed from reality.

@Bearfoot

I'm sorry for you then. I don't condone any sort of hitting (which is different than spanking, imo)

My parents never hit me in the face, never pulled hair, never caused me bruises, never caused me any lasting pain. I feel sorry for those children who have parents who cannot restrain themselves.

He has the right to take away her laptop, which I assume he paid for. I wouldn't do it, but he has that right. But an eight-minute video diatribe culminating in gun violence? Way over the top. For that matter, if all she did in the previous instance was similarly to vent about her chores, grounding her for three months was also over the top. This guy clearly has no sense of proportion or ability to reason. Adolescent daughters are tough -- I have two -- but if he won't model reason, he has no right to expect that she'll ever demonstrate it, either.

And for the people who call this tough love, or think my children must be whiny entitled brats because I don't respond to their occasional angstiness with a half-minute shooting spree: I strongly suspect that the only lesson this guy's daughter will learn is that she can't wait to get the hell away from her father. He may possibly intimidate her into shutting up for a few years, but then she's gone, and I hope he never gets old and difficult and needy, because I can't imagine he'll be seeing much of her then.

Annoying kids are annoying, but parents are supposed to be, you know, grownups. This family's problems are way bigger than a laptop.

My dad actually did the same thing to me when I was sixteen, except I'd complained about my home life in person to two friends and been overheard and he didn't shoot my laptop. Instead, he took the tower computer I'd built myself (Daddy taught me IT when I was a little bitty thing,) and gave it to a kid from our church who had lost everything in a fire and who was, he felt, more respectful and hardworking than me.

Not only did the loss of the computer sting, but seeing how happy the other kid was made me realize I could be a better person. I did my chores with more dedication, got a job babysitting, built myself a better computer, and then started a small business teaching senior citizens to use computers, all at age sixteen.

Then Daddy told me that if I paid rent, I wouldn't have to do chores anymore besides my own laundry, so I started paying him $300 a month and stopped having to do dishes and vacuum rugs. My little brother took up my chores and my little sister learned a few of his, since they were old enough by then, and once my business got busy enough, I hired my siblings for minimum wage. We wound up pooling some money to hire a maid service to do our chores and Dad was perfectly pleased with us, especially when we began donating computers we'd built to charities and people in need. We even set up the first website and Internet access our church ever had!

Here's the surprise. I'm twenty-six now, still working in IT, a college graduate, married, etc., and last month my husband and I bought our first house. Daddy came out to visit this past week and brought along a check -all the rent I paid from age sixteen through twenty, plus interest, he'd saved for me for some time when I might need it. He told me he was proud of how I've grown up, and I thanked him for being so tough and teaching me what I needed to know all those years ago. About half of the money, I'll use on some improvements to the house, but the other half I'm saving for the day when I can give my husband his own daughter and a chance to be just as wonderful a father as I have!

So yeah, all but the shooting of the poor laptop I completely agree with.

Also, there was no violence what so ever in this man's response. I think you all need to re-evaluate what violence actually means. And transference from his daughter to a lap top, really? Give me a break with that hippy nonsense.

I have to completely agree with this father. If your kid doesn't learn and continues behavior that is disruptive and disrespectful, I would completely agree with this punishment. Those who criticize this, really? Come on people, it's called tough love and it works. She is his daughter, and he damn sure has the right to do what he did. Good job on his part. If you don't agree with what he did, woopty doo, but I guarantee his daughter will learn this lesson.

I could not have said it any better than Chimera. Period. He did the RIGHT thing. Who cares if you all don't agree with it, I'd hate to see how your children are. Are they the ones who throw screaming fits in the store and everyone else has to deal with it because you don't have the balls to say "Be quiet. If you do not, we will leave the store." Please, get a life. Learn the REAL VALUES in life.

Love it. He warned her there would be consequences and followed up on it. Way more effective parenting than "reasoning" or "compromising" with a 15 year old. Have you ever tried to reason with a teenager?

@sandman>> Ok, then he spanked me too. My point still remains.

I think his actions send an important message: Your father is a childish A-hole and has a gun so you are his hostage until you can get out of whatever terrible place you live and start a real life.

Good for this guy. Wish he had taken a sledgehammer to it instead of just shooting it.
Wish more parents would teach their children that there will be consequences to their crappy actions/behaviour.

I hear you guy's. I was spanked as a child. Discipline was always strong in my family and if my Dad said something he meant it. I think the problem with today's parents is say it and never follow through. "If you don't stop I'll ..." I like this guy's follow through. She clearly had been warned and dove back in head first.
Good job Dad for sticking to your guns, literally.

number1guy , Oh believe me, I been through the worst of it. I'm one of those children that has been spanked, have her hair pulled and swung around like a merry go 'round, etc. And I do believe it has it's effects which I wouldn't go into here. Some people get spanked as a kid and grow up fine. But I don't think I am entirely fine. I have a younger sister that I made sure she didn't go though the same as I did. When she was rebellious and hateful, I talked her through it and guess what? She grew up to be more mature, more mental stable and happier than I am. She managed to stay out of trouble more than I did when I was younger too.

I wouldn't have gone as far as using a gun, because using that gun is just too much of a threatening, horrible scare tactic. You have to reason with them, while they are still young. When children are wrong, yes there are times you need to punish them, but you maybe more surprised that if you talk through it with them it may help them resonate better than to continue on the violence.

Also, what if this inspired the child to use the gun AGAINST her own family? Who is to blame after that?

The acorn didn't fall far from the tree did it?

It seems that she comes by her bratiness through nature and nurture.

There is a HUGE difference between hitting your child and spanking your child. It aggravates me to no end when people equate the two. I was spanked as a child. Am I psychologically screwed up now? Nope. I was spanked MAYBE three or four times in total, and I'm pretty sure I deserved every one. What did I learn? How to behave. This is the reason we have so many self-entitled brats running around these days. There are too many parents who are scared to death to punish their children for fear of judgement from a third party.

This guy has no idea how to have a real relationship with his daughter, and now he's blown away any chance he had. (pun intended) Grounding for three months? Shooting her laptop and posting a humiliating (to her) video on the internet for everyone to see? He's destroyed any chance he ever had a real loving relationship with her. I'd say this asshole deserves everything he gets in the future. A violent solution and an over the top response. He's the one acting like an over-dramatic teenager.

yeehaw.

Wish I could afford to blow away a laptop.

@number1guy>>

My dad hit me. all he taught me was that he's an a**Hole.

It stopped when I broke his ribs.

Say that again?

This thread is proof of how low parenting has fallen, and how invasive the government is with it's citizens lives. Just 30 years ago you could whip your child with a belt and not have to worry. Now? Belt your child as punishment...and you'll be thrown in jail for "abuse." Youtube video? Well now you have to deal with the ignoramus masses lashing out at you about how "real" parents would have handled it.

Only the younger generations would think this is "over the top," "unfortunate parenting," or "childish."

@Sam81
Talking with, grounding, and taking things away only goes so far when dealing with your children. Sometimes they need pain to get the point. Children learn through pain, it's a fact.

I agree with Chimaira. However I don't think he's going to get any further doing this than he has in the past. She obviously feels like she's so privileged she can do as she pleases. And I have to wonder what got them (the ENTIRE family) to this point? Was it the daughter alone? No. It took 15 yrs to reach this point. Shoot the laptop and vent all you want. But y'all should be in family counseling trying to figure out how to communicate better before someone gets shot or runs away from home and gets raped and then shot. It's foolish to believe that more of the same behavior will yield a different result.

I don't argue that the parent has the right to punish, but the transference of violence from his daughter to her laptop is kinda sick. How is it different that saying "I want to shoot you!"? To me, that seems like a pretty unhealthy way to express disappointment. In the the end it will always be "You shot my laptop" and never "I hurt your feelings, etc" Forever. Not like til prom.

The cigarette, however, was pure class.

I guess I differ from everyone else here. I think if people paid attention to the video he states that she has done something like this before and grounded her for it for three months. He also mentions that if she is to do it again there will be consequences for her actions. He warned her and he followed through showing her he's a man of his word.

@Jay, she can still do her homework without a laptop at places called libraries. Pretty sure her school has a computer lab. It's an all encompassing punishment. People can get fired because they posted negative things online.

@Karl S, pretty sure he bought it so he can do whatever he wants with it. So you're saying that it was ok for her to show her parents no respect whatsoever?

@Sam81, samething with her. Could she have talked it over with her parents instead of going online and complain?

I don't have kids yet but I know that with parents getting softer and kids thinking that are entitled to everything things are making a turn for the worst.

Oh dear, that POOR laptop! It's innocent and now it's dead, because the father couldn't figure out a better way to discipline his daughter. And to the junkyard it goes. :|

Anyways, wouldn't talking it over would have been a better solution? Confiscate that laptop, or donate it to the others that are poor and need it would have been better. Patience, sir, is the key. Even God has troubles with Adam and Eve, what makes you think parenting is easy?

Using the bullet showed what awful temperament this father has as well.

Her complaint was that she thought her parents were unreasonable. Didn't Dad just prove that point for her?

Completely. Over. The. Top. No wonder she's overly dramatic--with a parent like that she's learning by example. What a complete jerk--I'm scared for her as she grows up! It'll be a miracle if she ever grows out of acting 15 years old--obviously her father hasn't. It's sad he needs a license for the gun and not for raising children...

That's way over the top. She didn't say it to his face, she didn't argue it at him, just vented in a way all 15 years old do - in a diary (albeit a public one)

Also he's probably going to be stuck buying another computer in the near future. All her homework probably needs to be typed up or research. He's being overly dramatic without any foresight, which is a very 15 year old child like thing to do.

As if teenage girls don't already have enough problems with their self image/esteem, publicly humiliation is a surefire way to set them on a path to success.

What a manchild.

Are you seriously asking us whether it's justified to break someone's possessions when they say something you dislike?

1. This kind of incommensurate response is never justified;
2. The amount of time between the discovery and the breaking renders impossible the chance that it was an excusable instance of uncontrollable anger;
3. It sets a bad example.

Dont know which one is being more childish to be honest. At least the daughter has the excuse she's 15 :\

That's some real unfortunate parenting. Responding to a teenager with teenage behavior isn't going to help that child.