A Florida dad is being praised for his unusual parenting style.
When you find out that your kid is a bully, there are a lot of things that you can do. You can ignore it. You can try to talk to your child.
Or you can behave like Michael Yager. When he learned that his 13-year-old child Jacob was teasing kids at school, he created a novel punishment. He made Jacob stand alongside a busy Florida intersection clutching a sign that read: “I’m a bully. Honk if you hate bullies.”
The plan worked. Passerby began honking immediately.
“You never know what someone can be going through. If you want to be the bully, like if you have something inside you need to tell someone go to a guidance counselor or someone,” Jacob said.
Yager feels confident that Jacob will be a better person now. That’s the role of a parent, to guide their children into being happy, capable adults.
“I figured I would teach him a lesson that would embarrass him and make him feel the way that the kids feel,” Yager said.
Some people, however, found the stunt to be cruel.
“I had one woman come up and call me every name in the book… In my mind, I thought I was doing the right thing, but I guess you just can’t please everyone,” Yager said.
Jacob wasn’t physically harmed or emotionally damaged. He was embarrassed but not shamed or humiliated. There’s a good chance that the kids that he bullied had a worse experience than he did.
Parents shouldn’t be cruel or exact vengeance.
However, they should attempt to correct their children when they’re on the wrong course. Yager’s method may not have worked with all children, but it worked with Jacob. That’s all that matters.
(Source: Daily Mail)