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An Ohio father named Matt Cox forced his 10-year-old daughter to walk 8km to school as punishment for bullying another child.
Cox drove behind the little girl filming her as she walked along the side of the road on a cold day. He then posted the video on Facebook, calling it a “life lesson.”
As the child trudged along carrying her backpack and school supplies, her father explained that she had been suspended for three days from the school bus for a second bullying offence.
The video has been viewed over 17 million times and has sparked a debate on parenting standards.
In the viral video Cox says, “Let me make this extremely clear: bullying is unacceptable.” And yet, he thought it was acceptable to bully his own daughter by humiliating her on social media. Go figure?
There is a massive difference between disciplining a child and publicly shaming them in front of millions of people.
Punishing a child to teach them a lesson is one thing, but there is absolutely no need to post a video of said punishment on Facebook.
Let me make this extremely clear: publicly shaming a child isn’t parenting, it’s emotional abuse.
As reported by Psychology Today, “Shaming and humiliation causes fear in children. This fear does not go away when they grow up. It becomes a barrier for a healthy emotional life and is difficult to eradicate.”
Kids make mistakes, and those mistakes shouldn’t be plastered all over the Internet.
By posting the video on Facebook, this dad showed he wasn’t punishing his daughter to teach her a lesson, he was punishing her to get likes and attention on social media.
Psychology Today says parents should treat children the way they want to be treated, “Make the commitment to never shame a child.”
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