Thursday, November 17, 2005

Will Work For Food

So what is your opinion of the mom who made her 14 year old daughter stand on the corner of the intersection holding a sign saying

"I won't do my homework
I smart-mouth the teachers and I'm always late.
My mom says I have to do this to prepare me for my future.

Will work for Food." ?

The mom says in the couple of weeks since she stood out there WITH her daughter on that corner there has been a dramatic turn-around in her daughters attitude towards life and school.

The daughter says it was absolutley humiliating- but it taught her a lesson...it's definatley somewhere she doesn't EVER want to be again.

The child welfare was called on the mom. But nothing on that yet.

I say the mom is to be commended!!
Good for her for taking a stand.
And good for the daughter for realizing that her mom isn't an ogre and for putting her nose to the grindstone and doing the right thing now.

6 comments:

Paulius said...

You know, I used to think that all child behavioural problems came from a lack of parental discipline.

Then I met someone who's child is a Holy Terror, despite the fact that his parents had literally tried everything from taking away toys and priveleges, to pulling his pants down and giving him a damn good whuppin'.

If a parent has to wax creative sometimes to get a point across, let them.

If nothing else worked, I'd rather put my child through a few days humiliation, than have them leave school with no qualifications.

MC Etcher said...

I think it's a decent idea. It seemed to work in this case. It would depend on the teen.

I like it that the mom stood out there with her daughter, at least part of the time.

Sunny said...

Yeah- to verify something.....the MOM was out there with the teen the whole time she was holding that sign. It wan't for long- just a few hours til the police came and made them leave- but they were there long enough for the point to be made.

I don't think it was over the top humiliating either- not with mom by her side.

I stick by my original opinion- GODD FOR MOM!!!!!!!!!

Woman atop her Soapbox said...

There is a judge in Texas that uses that exact same tactic. Humiliation works. It makes you stop and think. Especially well on teenagers who think everybody is looking and the world revolves around them.

In this world of politically correct and "feel good" parenting, it's nice to see a mom taking a stand and fighting for her daughter. And if she did nothing and the girl ended up committing some crime or something, they would point fingers right at that mom. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. Well done Mom!

~TG

Paulius said...

In Japan, people caught littering have to spend a week cleaning up litter wearing a pink T-Shirt and baseball cap with the words "I'm a dirty pig" written on them.

Humiliation as a punishment might not be politically correct, but it's one hell of a deterent.

There was a similar scheme in England where people who speed in school zones can either pay a large fine, or visit the school, get up in front of the whole lot of them, apologise and answer questions.

Being asked "What would you have told my parents if you'd run me over and killed me?" will make anyone slow down.

OzzyC said...

Good for that mom. The system is constantly whittling away our rights as parents to discipline our kids and raise them the way they need to be raised. My own nephew tried the "You spank me and I'll call DHS on you." My brother backed down. Now my 13-year-old nephew is smoking.

Humiliation is nothing more than a variation of social pressure. Social pressure is used all the time to coerce deviant behavior. Humiliation in and of itself is not a bad thing.