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Permalink Reply by Erin Oltersdorf on February 10, 2012 at 1:26pm

OMG!!!! WOW!!! I love this and I think he was spot on! I hope that dad followed through with everything!

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Permalink Reply by Janiera Eldridge on February 10, 2012 at 5:37pm

Agreed, I'm definitely going to share this. This girl sounds like she has a really good life and should be grateful for her parents and willing to help out. He did a great job and bet she won't do it again.

Erin Oltersdorf said:

OMG!!!! WOW!!! I love this and I think he was spot on! I hope that dad followed through with everything!

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Permalink Reply by Karen Jackson on February 10, 2012 at 8:25pm

Sounds like a typical 15 year old rant, toss in the hormones and no sense of the end result of putting out the rant for her friends to read.  

Sounds a bit spoiled and not want for much, materialistic any how.  Dad was spot on but then I have a bit of concern of humiliating her.  Gosh can you imagine her not wanting to go to school?  Even though some may side with her or it could go bad with her peers.  

We would have followed through with consequences for the actions but not so sure to humiliate like that.  

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Permalink Reply by Kristin Shaw on February 10, 2012 at 8:48pm

I am a little torn about this.  While I think he was spot on calling her out, the scene shooting the laptop was a little unnerving!

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Moulton on February 11, 2012 at 10:54am

I have two feelings about this:

1.  I think he was right for doing something about it. I think reading the letter and addressing the issues was good.

2.  I think his choice of taking away her laptop and facebook was spot on.

However, here are my concerns:

1.  Humiliation on a public level can be effective and it can also be very destructive.  I don't know the mental state of his daughter, but I would be very concerned seeing as I worked with teenagers that something this humiliating could push a teen to consider suicide or become severely depressed, ridiculed, and made a spectacle at school.

2.  Shooting the laptop to me also was completely over the top.  I don't know why that seemed unsettling for me, if he had broken it with a bat or pulled an "office space" type thing with it, I don't think I would have had the same sentiment, but I'm not a HUGE fan of guns...so maybe that's why I didn't like that part.

But...

I do think that teenager needed to respect her father, I LOVED how he addressed the Linda comments, and think that overall that his choice as a parent to act and make an impact was great!  It takes a lot of strength as a parent to do something like this and I know that teenagers aren't easy to deal with. I taught middle school and high school.  &;)

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Permalink Reply by Erin Oltersdorf on February 11, 2012 at 11:29am

I don't think the dad ever anticipated the level of publicity this post was going to receive. That may have been the only downfall of this whole ordeal...that was a little over the top.  However, I personally have absolutely zero problems with the gun and I could see my dad doing the EXACT same thing...and I have a lot of respect and love for my dad.

It might have been strange had this dad whipped out his gun in an urban setting, but he was out in a rural area with nothing around him. He wasn't cursing at her and he didn't seem out of control to me.  I have tons of family in the midwest on farms and guns don't have the same stigma out there as in the city. It was probably just easier to destroy the laptop with a gun vs. backing over it with his truck a few times. :-) Makes perfect sense to me.

I hope this family and others can learn from this and move forward. This dad seems to me like he loves his daughter and is trying to teach her a lesson. It was certainly a painful way to learn, but it sounds like he has been trying to get through to her for some time. I do a little work in a behavioral health clinic, and I see HORRIBLE parents that are drug abusers, child abusers, and truly could care less about what happens to their kids. Now that is something to get fired up about. 

I am still 100% on team dad! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Janiera Eldridge on February 11, 2012 at 12:16pm

Ditto everything she said lol. The reason why shooting the laptop didn't bother me is because I could see my parents doing something like that. I like the fact he didn't cuss at her and he stayed considerably calm.  I don't think it was bad that he addressed it so publicly because she needs to learn the consequences of posting personal things online. At least her dad answered this before she bullied or went nude online and REALLY got some bad attention.

I just can't find any fault with what this guy did. IMO

Erin Oltersdorf said:

I don't think the dad ever anticipated the level of publicity this post was going to receive. That may have been the only downfall of this whole ordeal...that was a little over the top.  However, I personally have absolutely zero problems with the gun and I could see my dad doing the EXACT same thing...and I have a lot of respect and love for my dad.

It might have been strange had this dad whipped out his gun in an urban setting, but he was out in a rural area with nothing around him. He wasn't cursing at her and he didn't seem out of control to me.  I have tons of family in the midwest on farms and guns don't have the same stigma out there as in the city. It was probably just easier to destroy the laptop with a gun vs. backing over it with his truck a few times. :-) Makes perfect sense to me.

I hope this family and others can learn from this and move forward. This dad seems to me like he loves his daughter and is trying to teach her a lesson. It was certainly a painful way to learn, but it sounds like he has been trying to get through to her for some time. I do a little work in a behavioral health clinic, and I see HORRIBLE parents that are drug abusers, child abusers, and truly could care less about what happens to their kids. Now that is something to get fired up about. 

I am still 100% on team dad! :-)

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