Mom Teaches Son Not To Make Fun Of Others By Making Him Shop At Goodwill

Georgia mom of three Cierra Forney had gotten exasperated with her son’s attitude about clothing. In a Facebook post she wrote on March 25, she said her son was acting “entitled” and was making fun of some of his classmates for shopping at Goodwill. Because she wanted to teach him that money isn’t everything, she made her son use $20 of his own money to shop for a week’s worth of school clothes at the thrift store. According to Forney, whatever the 13-year-old found at the thrift store was what he had to wear to school that week.

Forney never expected her post, which included a picture of her son dragging his clothes behind him at the Goodwill store, to go viral. At the most, she expected 30 shares. Instead, the lesson-teaching post was shared over 245,000 times and liked over 658,000 times with well over 140,000 comments that vary from support to criticism. While many parents are commending the mom for her action to correct her son’s behavior, others warned the mother that her son would grow to hate her and possibly even kill her when he grew up. Even more parents criticized Forney for what they perceived was her negativity toward families that have to shop at thrift stores and for making her post public for what they considered to be attention only. Those who supported Forney’s actions called her an awesome mom and said that all she did was change her son’s attitude.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2142500755776628&set=a.209372489089474.62468.100000501728921&type=3

The mom countered with another Facebook post where she explained that she had asked her son’s permission to share the post before she did so, and he had agreed. She clarified that she and her son had an “amazing relationship,” and that she did this to teach her son a lesson, not to disparage Goodwill which she stated she “loved.” Forney wanted to teach her son that “money and name brands don’t change who we are as people.” She admits that she and her husband played a part in her son’s entitled attitude because they had him when they were young and wanted to give him all the things they didn’t have when they were growing up. But she wanted him to grow up to be a better man, which is why she chose to show a little tough love.

Forney ended her second post by saying that her son had learned a valuable lesson and that he was “rockin his button up shirt he bought from the Goodwill with PRIDE today!!!”