Parenting is a very controversial topic. Everyone has their own beliefs on what is right and what is wrong when it comes to how you raise your child. This is especially true when it comes to punishing a misbehaving child. Despite all the advice found online and in parenting books, only you can decide the best way to raise your child.
Joseph Blakeney, a dad from Texas, decided to get a little creative with his latest punishment to teach his son to mind his manners.
“When you want to treat your mom bad in the morning you get walked to the bus stop by dad in a pretty black dress,” he penned in his Facebook post on Friday.
Speaking to ABC 13 , Blakeney explained he made the decision to slip into a “pretty black dress” to discipline his 11-year-old son by embarrassing him during a walk to the bus stop. Donning a sleeveless, knee-high black dress, Joseph strutted his stuff while making sure everyone could see him walking his son to the bus stop. “He thought I wouldn’t do it. Bet he will act better now,” he added to the end of his Facebook post.
In just a few days, the Facebook post had accumulated over 100 comments with some mixed reactions on the Blakeney’s parenting technique. “Tell him next time you will walk him into school like that,” one Facebook user suggested. A second chimed in, “Wooooow, bet he won’t do it again! Did you give him a kiss on the cheek too[?]”
https://www.facebook.com/joseph.blakeney.98/posts/2272310836387344
Many others expressed how tickled they were by the punishment. As Joseph’s post started to gain the attention of media outlets and people began to share it on their own timelines, the Texas dad also started to receive some criticism for his parenting choices.
“How sad, shame and humiliation is not a teaching tool. [It’s] the sign of a bully… I came from strict discipline and [I’ve] never been in trouble so I am certainly not advocating to forgo discipline, but this isn’t discipline. This Dad taught his child nothing except maybe how to be sad and defenseless,” a Facebook user stated.
Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyles , psychologist Barbara Greenberg states that she does not believe shaming is an effective form of discipline for a child.
“You teach your children nothing by shaming them. In fact, what you do is you make them sad, and you make them more prone to engage in other kinds of problematic behavior,” Greenberg explained.
Yahoo Lifestyles speculates the bigger lesson learned from this form of punishment may be the fact that Joseph will follow through on a promise if his son misbehaves again in the future.