Update: This may come as a wild shock to some.. wait for it.. wait.... (I need that guy who did the awesome HD youtube parody to do me an intro here. Where is he when I need him?)
I'm NOT a hero... of ANY kind... at all. I'm not a super-dad, or awesome parent.
I'm a normal guy with reasonable a moral compass that I try very hard to keep pointed north. I make a LOT of mistakes. Did I say a LOT? I mean a WHOLE lot! Daily... sometimes hourly!
I'm extremely lucky to have a very strong wife who tolerates me and puts up with my mistakes, and who herself is strong enough that she can put me in my place with only a look.. no really.. you haven't seen her "I'm not kidding anymore" face... it's serious. (For example I can apparently destroy a laptop and garnish world-wide attention in mere seconds, but I guarantee tomorrow morning my wife will say "Hey Chuck Norris. Make the freakin BED WILL YOU PLEASE" because I'll forget to. (I have to admit the "Chuck Norris wears Tommy Jordan pajamas" comment will stay with me for the rest of my life. I want that on a bumper sticker!)
I'm lucky to have great kids (two of them) who look up to me despite all my mistakes. I make bad parenting decisions all the time. We all do. Personally, I stand behind the decision I made earlier this week by posting the video. I don't find fault with it. If I had it to do again... let's see... I'd do it almost the same.
I'd not be smoking a cigarette. (That's a habit I promised my wife I'd quit as soon as I could afford to just go out and buy a Chantix prescription. She absolutely hates it and I'm getting mature enough to want to quit it for my own reasons as well.)
I'd not have used the word "ass" in my comment directed at my daughter. That was rude and a bad example of a parent using the "Do as I say, not as I do" philosophy
I'd have worn my Silverbelly Stetson, not my Tilley hat if I'd known that image was going to follow me the rest of my life and I'd probably have cleaned my boots.
That's it. I meant all the rest of it. My wife is OK with it. My daughter is OK with it. My Mother is OK with it. I'm OK with it. We're the only ones that matter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those that feel the need to keep calling the police and CPS. lol
Apparently both the local police and the department of social services are OK with it. Yes they came. Of course they came. They received enough "Oh my god he's going to kill his daughter" comments that they had to. I knew that the moment it went viral.. it was too late and it was inevitable. I'm only surprised it took as long as it did to be honest.
The police by the way said "Kudos, Sir" and most of them made their kids watch it. I actually had a "thank you" from an entire detectives squad. And another police officer is using it in a positive manner in his presentation for the school system. How's about those apples? Didn't expect THAT when you called the cops did you?
The kind lady from Child Protective Services looked all through the house, the yard, and found ours to be a healthy home. She saw the unloaded guns in their rack with the magazines removed and stored separately and safely. Funny thing: The case officer asked to see "the gun".... "Umm, sir, may I see the actual..umm.. weapon used for the video?" She wasn't at all scared of me but I could tell she doesn't like guns as a general rule. To each their own though. She was comfortable that I was adhering to NC gun safety regulations for the protection of minors, and that's all she needed. But of course if you want to continue, I'm just going to leave a pot of coffee on for the next officers who come by. (Digress: Maybe I can get Krispy Kreme to sponsor me with lifetime donuts? Oh God that would be heaven. Dunkin? Crap... KK all the way....)
She asked if I minded if she interviewed my daughter privately but that I didn't have to agree. I let her meet in private and then she and I met for about an hour and a half. At the end of the day, no I'm not losing my kids, no one's in danger of being ripped from our home that I know of, and I actually got to spend some time with the nice lady and learn some cool parenting tips that I didn't know.. I use them on my 8 year old son, but not on my fifteen year old daughter.. but now I will! There were a few things I thought she was "too old" for, but after talking to the case worker, I feel like it's worth a shot to try them. Maybe I'll sell those secrets in my next book! (Seriously? You just got mad didn't you? I'm kidding. Besides, that would still only give me two pages of material- one parent tip page and one page on handgun selection techniques appropriate for different electronic destructive purposes.)
Back to me being a normal guy... I digressed again. You guys caught me on eight and a half minutes of ONE day in my life, probably the worst day in my life as a father. So, all in all, I consider the vast overwhelming show of support to be very very gratifying... that was me at my worst, not my best. If most of you found me OK as a Dad at that time, then I'm definitely OK the rest of the time. I was angry, hurt as hell, emotional as can possibly be, and stunned still. I'd taken an hour to compose myself, but apparently I should have waited longer.. and maybe used the .22 instead of the .45. (And since when does an 8 minute video EVER go viral? And maybe the next video I'll do will be auctioning the pistol I used.. that should buy some serious college tuition, but please understand that I will definitely use the profits to also purchase a replacement .45.)
I'd like to think that if a camera followed me around and filmed every moment of my life as a parent, most of you out there would still put me in the plus column. Truthfully most of you would probably be bored. I'm just ordinary. I was raised old fashioned, and I raise my kids the same way... the modern generational concepts be damned! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And OK, so THAT brings me to a topic I'll close with, though I had no intention of speaking on it when I started this rant. (Hey, aren't the 25 thousand of you who subscribed really regretting it now? I'm always this scatter brained. Makes you wonder how I formed enough sensible sentences to write a book doesn't it? Then again... maybe that accounts for the book sales being in the toilet...)
So, my last point: I've received a LOT of comments (and by lot you have to understand there's literally MILLIONS of them. I'll likely never be able to read them all in my lifetime) pointing out that I was raised old fashioned apparently that that I needed to learn to be a parent in today's world.
Umm.. is there a polite way to call bull***t!?
The kids today ARE self entitled, spoiled, adverse to working, and basically have NO usable skills taught to them in schools. (Yes some of you out there excel. If you've graduated high school and at least pay some of your own bills, then I'm not talking to you. If you however are 25 and live with your parents because you're too lazy to get a job, then yes, I'm talking to you. Half of that is the parent's fault for thinking that the school system is supposed to raise their kids. The other half is a parent's fault for letting our school systems get to the utterly pathetic state they are in. It's your kid.. so no matter what it's ALWAYS your fault.. get it?
I'll give you a real example from the NC school system. My daughter just finished Honors Geometry in school. Halfway through the semester she asks me "Dad, can you help me type this math problem into your graphing calculator? I can't get the equation to come out right." I said "sure" and went over to help out. The problem was about calculating the tangent of a line, but I can't remember the specifics of it at the moment. I took a look at it and said "Honey, why don't you just do the problem manually... you know, on a piece of paper? It's pretty easy."
She honestly looked at me like I was a complete idiot! "You can't do it with a pencil and paper, Dad. Sheesh!"
I stared at her dumbfounded. "Honey, you DO know that tangential math has been around since the 1600s, right? Over 500 years. Long BEFORE graphing calculators existed..., right?" Her response was "Well, we're not taught that. We're just taught how to enter it into a calculator and get the right answer."
Absolutely SURE she must be crazy, I checked.... and she's right. HONORS mathematics at the high school level doesn't teach kids basic math principles. At all!!! If a modern honors geometry student had to calculate the distance of a line from the top of a flag pole to any point in space relative to the ground.. they have no idea how to do it. (How many of you just asked your kids to show you how to do that? Wait... how many more are Googling it right now? Stop. That's cheating.)
Further, almost every state now is taking "writing" out of schools. Kids are now being taught to print, and that's it. No need for actual writing because they all have computers. I'm NOT making this up! This is TRUE!! They learn the alphabetic characters... and nothing more. The age of eloquent thought borne by patient strokes of pen to paper... are gone like Rhett Butler's sex appeal.
So let me recap... you don't learn math, you don't learn to write actual words without the benefit of spell-check. You don't apparently learn grammar either because I've SEEN those text books and quizzes.. horrible.
Yet you want ME to stop raising MY child with old fashioned methods that actually made me fairly intelligent, capable of fending for myself, capable of managing money, holding a job, respecting my elders, etc?
So you can replace it with what? You want to teach kids it's OK to talk back to parents as long as they have the freedom to express themselves. You want to outlaw spankings. You've obviously made it OK for them to be stupid upon graduating high school. You've recently made it illegal for kids to work around any animal that can harm them under the age of 18, to include working in hay lofts, around dogs, or cats, horses, or cattle, etc. (Thanks for that law Obama.. idiot) You won't let them work in a restaurant that serves alcohol until 18 in most states. You won't let them work at ALL until 15 (It was 13 for me, but Dad lied and got me started when I was 12). When are they supposed to learn actual adult stuff exactly? When do they learn responsibility? No kid left behind? Pfft.. EVERY kid left behind! (Dang I'm mad now.. maybe I WILL run for President... no, wife already vetoed that one. I'd really love to though.. really, seriously!)
"Modern" parenting raises ill-prepared kids who can't do anything and have no skills because they're protected from even LEARNING them until 18 years old, at which time you want us parents to throw them out into the world, send them off to college, and expect them to be productive members of society? You can take your "modern" parenting, and shove it. Jeezus people. Half of you think chores at 15 are too much! God forbid we make them actually WORK too!
(packing my soapbox away and going to bed now)
Where's that facebook link...?
anyways, as you get older, you're probably more inclined to agree with what he did
I almost remember a lifestyle like this is kansas, but i am not sticking up for this girl what she did was disrespectful and deserved to be punished. but besides that i remember when i was 12 i wanted to go visit my dad down south from chicago, now lets take a gander, i wasn't allowed to play bw or diablo 2 EVER. all because my step mom thought the cd's gave her viruses... and the funny part was she let her son watch porn at night on it. i was so sad and then her crack head daughter stole all my pc games (only thing i had ever owned except the clothes on my back) and i even confronted her! i got punished and lied to about it, and never even got the games back i had to replace them myself.
all those days of house chores or shoveling horse shit every week day, doing dishes all kinds of stupid chores i had to fucking pick up after my step brothers animals and hey practically tortured me with his abuse of power, he would intentionally make shit dirty! lol bastard...
i fucking hated it down there, i wont even drink bottled water anymore because if i was thirsty and asked for cold milk i got warm bottled water, and my dad bought my step mom so much pop and cigarettes! u guys don't even know, if i whined because i was bored i was "told" to go outside or do chores, i remember my 12th birthday like it was yesterday my sister got her shit the month before because our birthdays are back to back, she got a cake toys all kinds of shit. i didn't get anything D':< after the year of hard work i cried so hard when they told me i don't get anything. i was punished for crying and i cried for weeks about it. i felt abandoned and lonely it was so horrible my cat just died and all my dad could think about was how much of a pussy i was... well today i am 19 and i don't talk to my father anymore, only reason i was down there was so my mom couldn't get my dads social security check.
this girl had it fucking easy, right now all i own worth value is an old skateboard my shit amd radeon pc and clothes and sc2, its fucking depressing knowing how much your father never cared about you and you got spoiled little shit wigs whining on facebook about chores, my dads supporting another family and when he dies they get his house. i even told him not talk to me unless i get a will, he put his flat screen on his will and practically joked about it, now the family down there tells me i am lazy because i am a drop out and i need to get a job. i was supporting myself at 16 and starving by 17 trying to pass but i couldn't do it because of the years lost to failed transcripts and getting kicked out and couch hopping. my teeth are practically rotten from the lack of hygiene over the years because no one bothered to even get me a toothbrush. my future is meaningless but i don't think about suicide because i don't wanna hurt my friends...
I wish this story wasn't true and i was more happy, but all i can think about is how good i have it compared to some other people in 3rd world countries, i am living like a king off of food stamps! GED here i come unless i get famous for sc2, the only thing that really makes me happy nowadays ^^
The child received 0 physical harm. The guy clearly is not trying to be an overzealous dictator in the house, rather trying to raise well mannered productive kids...and punished the kid in a pretty effective and unique way if you ask me.
What I like about this situation is that it represents 2 polar opposite worlds meshing together. The father, who lives by an old fashioned yet highly effective code of conduct when it comes to survival...raising a daughter growing up in an era where "hard labor" is not as necessary to ensure your ability to live and in some cases even live well. There will always be ideologies that clash together in these situations, but the fact of the matter is that the man is clearly trying to be a good parent and raise a kid in what he believes is the right way...and I for one, see no reason why anyone should have an issue with that.
There are clearly some insane people in this thread who have forgotten that they were young too sometime. And calling a madman a hero just makes it worse. GJ society!
My stance: The girl is a spoiled bitch who should be disciplined, but the dad is an equally big bitch (it pretty much seemed on the video that he tried to one up his daughter by doing the exact thing she did to him but more, regardless of who is in the right). Good parenting is leading by example, and he handled it poorly.
On February 12 2012 06:41 Malgrif wrote: i get quite the kick from people talking about how it's wrong to shoot a laptop LOL
It could have been donated to a university or a charity or sold and then given that money to some poor africans in africa... to feed em...
Yeah, because everyone here donates everything that isn't a necessity to them, recycles everything and volunteers their spare time to help the homeless. None of you are perfect. Stop being so quick to judge others.
On February 12 2012 06:41 Malgrif wrote: i get quite the kick from people talking about how it's wrong to shoot a laptop LOL
It could have been donated to a university or a charity or sold and then given that money to some poor africans in africa... to feed em...
Yeah, because everyone here donates everything that isn't a necessity to them, recycles everything and volunteers their spare time to help the homeless. None of you are perfect. Stop being so quick to judge others.
Even if every american did what you just mentioned it probably wouldn't make a difference...
Update: This may come as a wild shock to some.. wait for it.. wait.... (I need that guy who did the awesome HD youtube parody to do me an intro here. Where is he when I need him?)
I'm NOT a hero... of ANY kind... at all. I'm not a super-dad, or awesome parent.
I'm a normal guy with reasonable a moral compass that I try very hard to keep pointed north. I make a LOT of mistakes. Did I say a LOT? I mean a WHOLE lot! Daily... sometimes hourly!
I'm extremely lucky to have a very strong wife who tolerates me and puts up with my mistakes, and who herself is strong enough that she can put me in my place with only a look.. no really.. you haven't seen her "I'm not kidding anymore" face... it's serious. (For example I can apparently destroy a laptop and garnish world-wide attention in mere seconds, but I guarantee tomorrow morning my wife will say "Hey Chuck Norris. Make the freakin BED WILL YOU PLEASE" because I'll forget to. (I have to admit the "Chuck Norris wears Tommy Jordan pajamas" comment will stay with me for the rest of my life. I want that on a bumper sticker!)
I'm lucky to have great kids (two of them) who look up to me despite all my mistakes. I make bad parenting decisions all the time. We all do. Personally, I stand behind the decision I made earlier this week by posting the video. I don't find fault with it. If I had it to do again... let's see... I'd do it almost the same.
I'd not be smoking a cigarette. (That's a habit I promised my wife I'd quit as soon as I could afford to just go out and buy a Chantix prescription. She absolutely hates it and I'm getting mature enough to want to quit it for my own reasons as well.)
I'd not have used the word "ass" in my comment directed at my daughter. That was rude and a bad example of a parent using the "Do as I say, not as I do" philosophy
I'd have worn my Silverbelly Stetson, not my Tilley hat if I'd known that image was going to follow me the rest of my life and I'd probably have cleaned my boots.
That's it. I meant all the rest of it. My wife is OK with it. My daughter is OK with it. My Mother is OK with it. I'm OK with it. We're the only ones that matter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those that feel the need to keep calling the police and CPS. lol
Apparently both the local police and the department of social services are OK with it. Yes they came. Of course they came. They received enough "Oh my god he's going to kill his daughter" comments that they had to. I knew that the moment it went viral.. it was too late and it was inevitable. I'm only surprised it took as long as it did to be honest.
The police by the way said "Kudos, Sir" and most of them made their kids watch it. I actually had a "thank you" from an entire detectives squad. And another police officer is using it in a positive manner in his presentation for the school system. How's about those apples? Didn't expect THAT when you called the cops did you?
The kind lady from Child Protective Services looked all through the house, the yard, and found ours to be a healthy home. She saw the unloaded guns in their rack with the magazines removed and stored separately and safely. Funny thing: The case officer asked to see "the gun".... "Umm, sir, may I see the actual..umm.. weapon used for the video?" She wasn't at all scared of me but I could tell she doesn't like guns as a general rule. To each their own though. She was comfortable that I was adhering to NC gun safety regulations for the protection of minors, and that's all she needed. But of course if you want to continue, I'm just going to leave a pot of coffee on for the next officers who come by. (Digress: Maybe I can get Krispy Kreme to sponsor me with lifetime donuts? Oh God that would be heaven. Dunkin? Crap... KK all the way....)
She asked if I minded if she interviewed my daughter privately but that I didn't have to agree. I let her meet in private and then she and I met for about an hour and a half. At the end of the day, no I'm not losing my kids, no one's in danger of being ripped from our home that I know of, and I actually got to spend some time with the nice lady and learn some cool parenting tips that I didn't know.. I use them on my 8 year old son, but not on my fifteen year old daughter.. but now I will! There were a few things I thought she was "too old" for, but after talking to the case worker, I feel like it's worth a shot to try them. Maybe I'll sell those secrets in my next book! (Seriously? You just got mad didn't you? I'm kidding. Besides, that would still only give me two pages of material- one parent tip page and one page on handgun selection techniques appropriate for different electronic destructive purposes.)
Back to me being a normal guy... I digressed again. You guys caught me on eight and a half minutes of ONE day in my life, probably the worst day in my life as a father. So, all in all, I consider the vast overwhelming show of support to be very very gratifying... that was me at my worst, not my best. If most of you found me OK as a Dad at that time, then I'm definitely OK the rest of the time. I was angry, hurt as hell, emotional as can possibly be, and stunned still. I'd taken an hour to compose myself, but apparently I should have waited longer.. and maybe used the .22 instead of the .45. (And since when does an 8 minute video EVER go viral? And maybe the next video I'll do will be auctioning the pistol I used.. that should buy some serious college tuition, but please understand that I will definitely use the profits to also purchase a replacement .45.)
I'd like to think that if a camera followed me around and filmed every moment of my life as a parent, most of you out there would still put me in the plus column. Truthfully most of you would probably be bored. I'm just ordinary. I was raised old fashioned, and I raise my kids the same way... the modern generational concepts be damned! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And OK, so THAT brings me to a topic I'll close with, though I had no intention of speaking on it when I started this rant. (Hey, aren't the 25 thousand of you who subscribed really regretting it now? I'm always this scatter brained. Makes you wonder how I formed enough sensible sentences to write a book doesn't it? Then again... maybe that accounts for the book sales being in the toilet...)
So, my last point: I've received a LOT of comments (and by lot you have to understand there's literally MILLIONS of them. I'll likely never be able to read them all in my lifetime) pointing out that I was raised old fashioned apparently that that I needed to learn to be a parent in today's world.
Umm.. is there a polite way to call bull***t!?
The kids today ARE self entitled, spoiled, adverse to working, and basically have NO usable skills taught to them in schools. (Yes some of you out there excel. If you've graduated high school and at least pay some of your own bills, then I'm not talking to you. If you however are 25 and live with your parents because you're too lazy to get a job, then yes, I'm talking to you. Half of that is the parent's fault for thinking that the school system is supposed to raise their kids. The other half is a parent's fault for letting our school systems get to the utterly pathetic state they are in. It's your kid.. so no matter what it's ALWAYS your fault.. get it?
I'll give you a real example from the NC school system. My daughter just finished Honors Geometry in school. Halfway through the semester she asks me "Dad, can you help me type this math problem into your graphing calculator? I can't get the equation to come out right." I said "sure" and went over to help out. The problem was about calculating the tangent of a line, but I can't remember the specifics of it at the moment. I took a look at it and said "Honey, why don't you just do the problem manually... you know, on a piece of paper? It's pretty easy."
She honestly looked at me like I was a complete idiot! "You can't do it with a pencil and paper, Dad. Sheesh!"
I stared at her dumbfounded. "Honey, you DO know that tangential math has been around since the 1600s, right? Over 500 years. Long BEFORE graphing calculators existed..., right?" Her response was "Well, we're not taught that. We're just taught how to enter it into a calculator and get the right answer."
Absolutely SURE she must be crazy, I checked.... and she's right. HONORS mathematics at the high school level doesn't teach kids basic math principles. At all!!! If a modern honors geometry student had to calculate the distance of a line from the top of a flag pole to any point in space relative to the ground.. they have no idea how to do it. (How many of you just asked your kids to show you how to do that? Wait... how many more are Googling it right now? Stop. That's cheating.)
Further, almost every state now is taking "writing" out of schools. Kids are now being taught to print, and that's it. No need for actual writing because they all have computers. I'm NOT making this up! This is TRUE!! They learn the alphabetic characters... and nothing more. The age of eloquent thought borne by patient strokes of pen to paper... are gone like Rhett Butler's sex appeal.
So let me recap... you don't learn math, you don't learn to write actual words without the benefit of spell-check. You don't apparently learn grammar either because I've SEEN those text books and quizzes.. horrible.
Yet you want ME to stop raising MY child with old fashioned methods that actually made me fairly intelligent, capable of fending for myself, capable of managing money, holding a job, respecting my elders, etc?
So you can replace it with what? You want to teach kids it's OK to talk back to parents as long as they have the freedom to express themselves. You want to outlaw spankings. You've obviously made it OK for them to be stupid upon graduating high school. You've recently made it illegal for kids to work around any animal that can harm them under the age of 18, to include working in hay lofts, around dogs, or cats, horses, or cattle, etc. (Thanks for that law Obama.. idiot) You won't let them work in a restaurant that serves alcohol until 18 in most states. You won't let them work at ALL until 15 (It was 13 for me, but Dad lied and got me started when I was 12). When are they supposed to learn actual adult stuff exactly? When do they learn responsibility? No kid left behind? Pfft.. EVERY kid left behind! (Dang I'm mad now.. maybe I WILL run for President... no, wife already vetoed that one. I'd really love to though.. really, seriously!)
"Modern" parenting raises ill-prepared kids who can't do anything and have no skills because they're protected from even LEARNING them until 18 years old, at which time you want us parents to throw them out into the world, send them off to college, and expect them to be productive members of society? You can take your "modern" parenting, and shove it. Jeezus people. Half of you think chores at 15 are too much! God forbid we make them actually WORK too!
(packing my soapbox away and going to bed now)
Where's that facebook link...?
anyways, as you get older, you're probably more inclined to agree with what he did
TL has a relatively young demographic.
TL is far above the national average when it comes to supporting corporal punishment.
Sorry to burst the bubble but most of the people that agree with this are actually on the younger side of the spectrum. It's the wanna-be-intellectual 16 year old that constantly repeats how he "hates his own generation" and how they need to be beaten into submission.
And TL has plenty of those. It is motivated more out of the hatred of peers than a genuine care for education.
As you grow older and start to think about kids or even have kids, the idea of beating them just seems completely alien. Unless your culture beats such feelings of compassion out of you from a young age.
On February 12 2012 06:41 Malgrif wrote: i get quite the kick from people talking about how it's wrong to shoot a laptop LOL
It could have been donated to a university or a charity or sold and then given that money to some poor africans in africa... to feed em...
Yeah, because everyone here donates everything that isn't a necessity to them, recycles everything and volunteers their spare time to help the homeless. None of you are perfect. Stop being so quick to judge others.
Even if every american did what you just mentioned it probably wouldn't make a difference...
Actually it would make all the difference, which is what most north americans can't seem to get though their thick skulls.
On February 11 2012 19:32 ChriS-X wrote: people here who are sticking up for the daughter obviously never had seen asian parents at work
I have Asian parents, and I showed this video to my dad and he was shocked.Yes, Asian parents are harsh. I've been caned, beaten, yelled at, made to kneel in a corner and all other kinds of nasty things. I've even been dragged out and dumped in the garden when I was too lazy to leave the bed. However, my dad or my mum would never shoot a laptop and post it on the internet because:
1) Asian families keep their dirty linen to themselves. As bad as things may be, what happens in the family stays in the family. Essentially the outside world does not need to/should not know family disputes. It looks bad on you as a parent, and it looks bad on the whole family.
The guy's response pointed out the obvious problem - once on the internet, always on the internet. When this girl applies for a real job in the future and they do a simply background check, this silly video will be something she will have to explain. Of course most companies might shrug it off, but what if this girl wanted to work as a politician? or a public figure? it's just bad baggage.
2) Asian parents do everything for their children. Of course my dad has his ego and idiosyncratic ways. But at the end of the day, everything was done with my future in mind (see point 1 about how posting this on the internet basically handicaps the girl in the future). Now it's his kid to raise. But what my dad showed me is that when he scolded me, it was never about him, or his bruised ego, or what not. It was about teaching me a lesson, addressing my inadequacies.
Watch the video. His voice is shaking, and he clearly isn't thinking straight. He even dedicates one bullet to her mom because the mom asked him to. This isn't just about teaching his daughter a lesson, it is also about him venting. And that's just silly, because you scold the child for the child, and not to make yourself feel better.
3) An Asian parent would have sold the laptop, used it for himself, or something more productive than shooting it to bits.
Second point is right on. He's not doing anything to teach her a "lesson" he's throwing a temper tantrum.
This is pretty much my opinion, you wonder where she got her tendency to throw tantrums, her father looks like a pretty solid example of it ( this is most definitely not the first time he have ranted and raved about something ). Leading by example is very powerful.
On February 12 2012 06:54 TotalNightmare wrote: There are clearly some insane people in this thread who have forgotten that they were young too sometime. And calling a madman a hero just makes it worse. GJ society!
I was never an entitled little bitch like this guys daughter when I was 15.
Maybe without the internet and facebook to ruin her she can make something decent of herself.
Update: This may come as a wild shock to some.. wait for it.. wait.... (I need that guy who did the awesome HD youtube parody to do me an intro here. Where is he when I need him?)
I'm NOT a hero... of ANY kind... at all. I'm not a super-dad, or awesome parent.
I'm a normal guy with reasonable a moral compass that I try very hard to keep pointed north. I make a LOT of mistakes. Did I say a LOT? I mean a WHOLE lot! Daily... sometimes hourly!
I'm extremely lucky to have a very strong wife who tolerates me and puts up with my mistakes, and who herself is strong enough that she can put me in my place with only a look.. no really.. you haven't seen her "I'm not kidding anymore" face... it's serious. (For example I can apparently destroy a laptop and garnish world-wide attention in mere seconds, but I guarantee tomorrow morning my wife will say "Hey Chuck Norris. Make the freakin BED WILL YOU PLEASE" because I'll forget to. (I have to admit the "Chuck Norris wears Tommy Jordan pajamas" comment will stay with me for the rest of my life. I want that on a bumper sticker!)
I'm lucky to have great kids (two of them) who look up to me despite all my mistakes. I make bad parenting decisions all the time. We all do. Personally, I stand behind the decision I made earlier this week by posting the video. I don't find fault with it. If I had it to do again... let's see... I'd do it almost the same.
I'd not be smoking a cigarette. (That's a habit I promised my wife I'd quit as soon as I could afford to just go out and buy a Chantix prescription. She absolutely hates it and I'm getting mature enough to want to quit it for my own reasons as well.)
I'd not have used the word "ass" in my comment directed at my daughter. That was rude and a bad example of a parent using the "Do as I say, not as I do" philosophy
I'd have worn my Silverbelly Stetson, not my Tilley hat if I'd known that image was going to follow me the rest of my life and I'd probably have cleaned my boots.
That's it. I meant all the rest of it. My wife is OK with it. My daughter is OK with it. My Mother is OK with it. I'm OK with it. We're the only ones that matter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those that feel the need to keep calling the police and CPS. lol
Apparently both the local police and the department of social services are OK with it. Yes they came. Of course they came. They received enough "Oh my god he's going to kill his daughter" comments that they had to. I knew that the moment it went viral.. it was too late and it was inevitable. I'm only surprised it took as long as it did to be honest.
The police by the way said "Kudos, Sir" and most of them made their kids watch it. I actually had a "thank you" from an entire detectives squad. And another police officer is using it in a positive manner in his presentation for the school system. How's about those apples? Didn't expect THAT when you called the cops did you?
The kind lady from Child Protective Services looked all through the house, the yard, and found ours to be a healthy home. She saw the unloaded guns in their rack with the magazines removed and stored separately and safely. Funny thing: The case officer asked to see "the gun".... "Umm, sir, may I see the actual..umm.. weapon used for the video?" She wasn't at all scared of me but I could tell she doesn't like guns as a general rule. To each their own though. She was comfortable that I was adhering to NC gun safety regulations for the protection of minors, and that's all she needed. But of course if you want to continue, I'm just going to leave a pot of coffee on for the next officers who come by. (Digress: Maybe I can get Krispy Kreme to sponsor me with lifetime donuts? Oh God that would be heaven. Dunkin? Crap... KK all the way....)
She asked if I minded if she interviewed my daughter privately but that I didn't have to agree. I let her meet in private and then she and I met for about an hour and a half. At the end of the day, no I'm not losing my kids, no one's in danger of being ripped from our home that I know of, and I actually got to spend some time with the nice lady and learn some cool parenting tips that I didn't know.. I use them on my 8 year old son, but not on my fifteen year old daughter.. but now I will! There were a few things I thought she was "too old" for, but after talking to the case worker, I feel like it's worth a shot to try them. Maybe I'll sell those secrets in my next book! (Seriously? You just got mad didn't you? I'm kidding. Besides, that would still only give me two pages of material- one parent tip page and one page on handgun selection techniques appropriate for different electronic destructive purposes.)
Back to me being a normal guy... I digressed again. You guys caught me on eight and a half minutes of ONE day in my life, probably the worst day in my life as a father. So, all in all, I consider the vast overwhelming show of support to be very very gratifying... that was me at my worst, not my best. If most of you found me OK as a Dad at that time, then I'm definitely OK the rest of the time. I was angry, hurt as hell, emotional as can possibly be, and stunned still. I'd taken an hour to compose myself, but apparently I should have waited longer.. and maybe used the .22 instead of the .45. (And since when does an 8 minute video EVER go viral? And maybe the next video I'll do will be auctioning the pistol I used.. that should buy some serious college tuition, but please understand that I will definitely use the profits to also purchase a replacement .45.)
I'd like to think that if a camera followed me around and filmed every moment of my life as a parent, most of you out there would still put me in the plus column. Truthfully most of you would probably be bored. I'm just ordinary. I was raised old fashioned, and I raise my kids the same way... the modern generational concepts be damned! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And OK, so THAT brings me to a topic I'll close with, though I had no intention of speaking on it when I started this rant. (Hey, aren't the 25 thousand of you who subscribed really regretting it now? I'm always this scatter brained. Makes you wonder how I formed enough sensible sentences to write a book doesn't it? Then again... maybe that accounts for the book sales being in the toilet...)
So, my last point: I've received a LOT of comments (and by lot you have to understand there's literally MILLIONS of them. I'll likely never be able to read them all in my lifetime) pointing out that I was raised old fashioned apparently that that I needed to learn to be a parent in today's world.
Umm.. is there a polite way to call bull***t!?
The kids today ARE self entitled, spoiled, adverse to working, and basically have NO usable skills taught to them in schools. (Yes some of you out there excel. If you've graduated high school and at least pay some of your own bills, then I'm not talking to you. If you however are 25 and live with your parents because you're too lazy to get a job, then yes, I'm talking to you. Half of that is the parent's fault for thinking that the school system is supposed to raise their kids. The other half is a parent's fault for letting our school systems get to the utterly pathetic state they are in. It's your kid.. so no matter what it's ALWAYS your fault.. get it?
I'll give you a real example from the NC school system. My daughter just finished Honors Geometry in school. Halfway through the semester she asks me "Dad, can you help me type this math problem into your graphing calculator? I can't get the equation to come out right." I said "sure" and went over to help out. The problem was about calculating the tangent of a line, but I can't remember the specifics of it at the moment. I took a look at it and said "Honey, why don't you just do the problem manually... you know, on a piece of paper? It's pretty easy."
She honestly looked at me like I was a complete idiot! "You can't do it with a pencil and paper, Dad. Sheesh!"
I stared at her dumbfounded. "Honey, you DO know that tangential math has been around since the 1600s, right? Over 500 years. Long BEFORE graphing calculators existed..., right?" Her response was "Well, we're not taught that. We're just taught how to enter it into a calculator and get the right answer."
Absolutely SURE she must be crazy, I checked.... and she's right. HONORS mathematics at the high school level doesn't teach kids basic math principles. At all!!! If a modern honors geometry student had to calculate the distance of a line from the top of a flag pole to any point in space relative to the ground.. they have no idea how to do it. (How many of you just asked your kids to show you how to do that? Wait... how many more are Googling it right now? Stop. That's cheating.)
Further, almost every state now is taking "writing" out of schools. Kids are now being taught to print, and that's it. No need for actual writing because they all have computers. I'm NOT making this up! This is TRUE!! They learn the alphabetic characters... and nothing more. The age of eloquent thought borne by patient strokes of pen to paper... are gone like Rhett Butler's sex appeal.
So let me recap... you don't learn math, you don't learn to write actual words without the benefit of spell-check. You don't apparently learn grammar either because I've SEEN those text books and quizzes.. horrible.
Yet you want ME to stop raising MY child with old fashioned methods that actually made me fairly intelligent, capable of fending for myself, capable of managing money, holding a job, respecting my elders, etc?
So you can replace it with what? You want to teach kids it's OK to talk back to parents as long as they have the freedom to express themselves. You want to outlaw spankings. You've obviously made it OK for them to be stupid upon graduating high school. You've recently made it illegal for kids to work around any animal that can harm them under the age of 18, to include working in hay lofts, around dogs, or cats, horses, or cattle, etc. (Thanks for that law Obama.. idiot) You won't let them work in a restaurant that serves alcohol until 18 in most states. You won't let them work at ALL until 15 (It was 13 for me, but Dad lied and got me started when I was 12). When are they supposed to learn actual adult stuff exactly? When do they learn responsibility? No kid left behind? Pfft.. EVERY kid left behind! (Dang I'm mad now.. maybe I WILL run for President... no, wife already vetoed that one. I'd really love to though.. really, seriously!)
"Modern" parenting raises ill-prepared kids who can't do anything and have no skills because they're protected from even LEARNING them until 18 years old, at which time you want us parents to throw them out into the world, send them off to college, and expect them to be productive members of society? You can take your "modern" parenting, and shove it. Jeezus people. Half of you think chores at 15 are too much! God forbid we make them actually WORK too!
(packing my soapbox away and going to bed now)
Where's that facebook link...?
anyways, as you get older, you're probably more inclined to agree with what he did
TL has a relatively young demographic.
TL is far above the national average when it comes to supporting corporal punishment.
Sorry to burst the bubble but most of the people that agree with this are actually on the younger side of the spectrum. It's the wanna-be-intellectual 16 year old that constantly repeats how he "hates his own generation" and how they need to be beaten into submission.
And TL has plenty of those. It is motivated more out of the hatred of peers than a genuine care for education.
As you grow older and start to think about kids or even have kids, the idea of beating them just seems completely alien. Unless your culture beats such feelings of compassion out of you from a young age.
I'd say that it has mostly to do with TL being mostly males and not the age of those visiting this forum.
On February 12 2012 06:55 TheRPGAddict wrote: My stance: The girl is a spoiled bitch who should be disciplined, but the dad is an equally big bitch (it pretty much seemed on the video that he tried to one up his daughter by doing the exact thing she did to him but more, regardless of who is in the right). Good parenting is leading by example, and he handled it poorly.
I agree completely. I have no problem with destroying or removing her laptop or grounding her for eternity, but reacting with a public video to humiliate her is just as stupid and immature as what she did, only he's the one who carries higher expectations. And honestly, if she hadn't made a public complaint but instead had written the exact same thing in her private journal, I'd have no problem with it. Instead she made the stupid decision to do it publicly and now we can see why.
She's an attention whore, and she's raised by an attention whore.