Wow, oh wow.

I’ve heard about this video making the rounds of Facebook over the last few weeks, but didn’t get around to actually watching it until now. Basically an American dad posts a YouTube video addressing his daughter’s rant about her parents on Facebook. He was visibly upset especially after he just spent hours maintaining her computer on which she later slammed him. He decided to teach her a lesson by shooting her laptop and then posting it on her Facebook page. Here it is in case you missed it.

Holy crap, did I ever experience a gamut of emotions over it.

Things like:

  • Skepticism that someone would go to that length to punish his kid. Until I realized that there was no way he was that good an actor.
  • Trepidation that my kid may be like that when she’s a teenager, coupled with the sinking realization that many teenagers are at least a little like that, so yes, in fact, she may go through that phase too. Heck she already tells me that I make her do too much as she complains about setting the table…
  • Approval. I think it’s great that he keeps an eye on his kid’s online activities and tries to keep her accountable.
  • Disapproval that he would actually shoot the damn thing, thereby wasting the money he spent when he initially purchased it.
  • Total sympathy with the dad who was just visibly shaking with (what to me seemed like) righteous anger and disappointment. I’m amazed he kept it together because when I’m that mad and disappointed I can’t speak without bawling.
  • Total sympathy with the kid because I remember what it’s like to be a self-involved, snotty teenage girl who thinks everyone else does nothing while she does everything.

My final reaction on this is that he is probably a decent person who was just pushed too far by his kid. Should he have shot the laptop? That’s a bit extreme for me. Should he have publicly shamed his kid? Well, he’s proved that actions have consequences. And if she doesn’t hate him forever she’s going to have one hell of a story to tell to her teenagers…

What did you feel watching this? Did the dad completely overreact or was this poetic justice?