Woman Wants to Know If She’s a Bad Mom for Making Her Daughter Sleep Outside As a Punishment
Case in point: One mom who made some controversial parenting choices, and is now at the people of Reddit’s feet, asking whether or not she made the right decision.
For some background, the mom is a single mom of two teenagers—Jasmine, 16 and Jessica, 14—at just 34 years old. The father of the children died when the woman was pregnant with the youngest.
“I had to work hard,” she explained in the Reddit thread. “We hit rock bottom, and I was barely making paycheque to paycheque but I managed to get a degree, become successful and we live well. Point is, I know how hard it is to be at the bottom of society, and my daughters know this, which is why I was livid at my daughter’s actions.”
So what did they do? Well, it turns out that one of them harassed a homeless man asking for money, telling him he was too lazy to earn it himself. The daughters also told him that he shouldn’t complain about the cold weather, and that since people camp in the winter, he was “living someone’s holiday.”
The mom was so furious when she found out that she made her apologize to the homeless man and help pay for a hotel room for a night for him. She also had her sign up to volunteer at a food bank.
But it didn’t end there. She then decided that to really learn her lesson, the daughter needed to feel what the man was feeling-and had her sleep outside.
“I locked her bedroom door so she couldn’t go in, put a sign on it saying, ‘closed for the holidays,’ pitched a tent in the garden and filled it with blankets and a sleeping bag,” the mom explained.
After the experiment, the daughter woke up in tears, and things were looking up ever since. However, when the woman’s sister heard about the punishment, she told her that she was being way too harsh—and now she isn’t sure how to feel. “Am I the a**hole?” she asks in the thread.
So what’s the verdict? People who’ve read the story say no! She is NOT the jerk here and most people agree that it’s a lesson well learned.
“This is A+ parenting,” someone wrote. “It’s our job as parents to raise good, empathetic people who will contribute positively to society. Killing it.”
“Honestly with the way the daughter has changed her perspective so much I’d be willing to bet she’s actually grateful for it if anything,” another noticed. “Not the A**hole. Everyone should learn this lesson. Empathy is important.”
“You did a good thing here,” another applauded. “You weren’t being cruel or unusual in any way. You provided her blankets and a warm sleeping bag and you didn’t force her to do anything, .She clearly learned the lesson and feels genuine remorse. You should be proud.”
You can read the whole story and all the comments here!
What do you think about how this mom punished her daughter to teach her a lesson? Would you ever do something like this?
