Forget Spanking! Mom Chose Facebook Shaming as Punishment

When her 12-year-old daughter wanted to post a photo of herself wishing she could drink vodka, author and mom ReShonda Tate Billingsley decided to teach her a lesson with what could be the most powerful parental disciplinary weapon ever devised by man: Facebook shaming.

At first, it might seem like your typical case of modern parental discipline: A Texas mom has prohibited her 12-year-old daughter from using the photo-sharing site Instagram after she caught the girl posting a photo of herself holding an unopened bottle of vodka with a caption that read “I sure wish I could drink this.”

But it’s what ReShonda Tate Billingsley did next that has people buzzing: Billinglsey, a prominent Houston-area author, had her daughter post a new picture of herself to Instagram earlier this month holding a sign reading, “Since I want to post photos of me holding liquor, I am obviously not ready for social media and will be taking a hiatus until I learn what I should (and) should not post. Bye-bye.” [...]

“I thought she knew better, but in her mind, she thought, ‘I’m not drinking, what’s the problem?’” Billingsley said. What the girl didn’t realize, she said, was that the photo might still send the wrong message to a future employer or prove attractive to a predator, who “can see it and think this is a little girl who likes to drink.”

“Because she had been warned,” she added, “I felt I needed to hit her where it hurt most.”

And hurt it did. After she explained the punishment to her daughter, the girl was “devastated” for a day, Billingsley said.

“She actually asked for a spanking instead; she begged for a spanking,” she said.

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Previously on Neatorama: Dad Shot Laptop Over Daughter's Facebook Post


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She could have forced her to drink it - pretty sure the day after would have been a lesson and a half. Only thing I use Vodka for is adding to my screenwash for de-icing. Vile stuff.
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Using shame and ridicule to discipline a child is more likely than not to have other-than-foreseen, bad consequences, like the child bullying and ridiculing others. Enjoy, mommy dearest.
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I agree, Stigs. There was no reason to publicize the ban from social media.
I'm really getting tired of parents airing their grievances with their child and calling it "discipline". It's not. For me, it is proof that the parents aren't ready for social media either.
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Billingsley is right: parents should discourage their children from posting photos and text online that would cause them shame and embarrassment later in life.

And that is why she should never have posted this photo of her daughter, nor conducted media interviews about it. Her actions were counterproductive.
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Good point, John. This becomes something far more public than just a stupid photo. Maybe she's hoping future employers will take sympathy on the girl with the crazy mom.
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