Wish More Parents Were Like This

http://www.litefm.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=421220&article=9738000

I wish more parents were like this dad - unafraid of being unpopular with his daughter and her peers.  He promised her if she ever did something like this again there would be consequences and he FOLLOWED THROUGH!  If more parents did what this dad did, then our children would have a better chance of becoming the adults we want/expect them to be. 

Another impressive thing about this video is that the girl's parents are divorced and the dad tells her that she was disrespectful of him, her stepmom AND her mom.  Dad did not forget that she has both a mom and a stepmom and he expects her to show respect for both of them.  At the end of the video, it shows him putting a bullet in the computer because her mom asked him to do so.  This tells me that mom and dad are communicating and keeping each other informed about what their daughter is doing and each of them is supporting the other in handing out punishment and insuring their daughter is doing the right thing.

It is imperative that divorced parents work together to raise their children.  They must learn to put aside their personal differences and show their children that they WILL stand together when it comes to punishment and they WILL each hold their children accountable for their actions.  In order to raise our children correctly, we can't allow our feelings for an ex-spouse to get in the way of doing what's right for the child.  Parents must communicate with each other about school work, broken rules, etc. and they must decide together what the punishment will be and work together and support each other in administering the punishments.  They can not take this opportunity to try to be the "good" parent and try to play one parent against the other.  By doing this, they show the child that they still respect the other parent and they are still working together to raise their child.  It also helps the child to not play one parent against the other.

But, the most important thing is that this dad has, hopefully, taught his daughter a valuable lesson.  They will be consequences when rules are broken, the parent will follow through with them and there will be no backing off.

Kudos to this dad!