Recently, a video of a girl being made to walk to school in a freezing temperature, has provoked a debate on parenting. The walk was a part of her punishment for bullying a kid on the bus, the video was filmed by her father who followed her in his car.
Ten-year old Kristen was reported for bullying a kid on the school bus for the second time and thus got denied from riding the bus, when she asked her father to give her a ride to school, that was when he decided that enough is enough. And decided to punish her by making her walk 5 miles to school, and of course for security measures, he drove along with her and filmed her walk.
Matt, the father, while filming his daughter, explained the incident then added: “A lot of children today feel that the things their parents do for them is a right and not a privilege, such as parents taking their children to school in the morning or even bus rides to school.”
The video of course then created an ethical dilemma, and with a 15 million times view, the comments were more than 62 thousands! some of which praised his act and others believed that this is fighting bullying by bullying.
Now you might also not agree with his method, but let’s take the experience to Egypt and think thoroughly. Many parents hate to believe that their kids are wrong, when a parent is asked to come to school, they are quick to defend their children and justifying their actions. Others are quick to take action and punish their kids without hearing them out, which creates a gap between them and their children.
The father’s method might not appeal to all parents, but at least an action was taken and a lesson was learned, the kid would have never really learned the consequences of her actions if she was simply been given another ride for school.
We blame children for bullying and we really never understood why, what triggered such a behavior?
Teach your children to love and accept everyone, that what they have got better than others in life is a privilege and not a right, something they should feel grateful for. Teach them that it’s okay to say sorry, that it has nothing to do with their ego.
Support and tough love start from home, valued lesson on how to love and accept people start from home. The values they acquire in their early years stick with them for a lifetime, I have grown friends who don’t apologize because saying sorry hurts their ego. I have friends who look poorly at others because they weren’t given the same opportunities in life.
And I have friends who were raised to earn the privileges given to them, who were raised on certain values and treat people equally. Some do it unconsciously because they attained these values from simply watching their parents do it, and those people are the best, so raise more of them.