Friday, February 10, 2012
Tough love
Trending right now is a video of a dad who, after finding a curse-laden filled complaint his daughter tried to post privately on Facebook, videotaped an eight minute rebuttal that ends with him taking out his gun and shooting his daughter's laptop eight (nine?) times. First, it should be noted that the clip is currently being investigated for authenticity. (Did his daughter post this complaint to Facebook? Does this guy even have a daughter? etc.)
As someone who grew up with guns in the house, I don't find this guy's actions threatening. Yes, it is a gun, but he could have just as easily used a sledgehammer or his car to destroy her laptop. Merely having a gun doesn't mean you're capable of killing a family member. If it did, I'm not sure my siblings and I would be here.
The dad in the video wanted to make a statement and I don't feel for a second that the statement was that he'd use his gun against his daughter. From the dad's view, the daughter had been previously warned about such posts. That she did it again on what she thought was the sly proves their initial efforts to reign in the behavior were unsuccessful. Was it a little extreme? Absolutely. But what if the guy is dealing with a hormonal teenager in the midst of a rebellious streak? It sounds to me that he is actually a caring parent. He wants her to understand how hard they work to make her life easy. He is monitoring her Internet activity. He is responsive when he sees behavior he thinks is unacceptable. Aren't these things we want parents to do? I can't say I'd ever shot Hen's computer - it's not the Macbook's fault - but I could certainly see Hen losing his computer privileges if he continued to post objectionable items after being told not to.
What do you think, gentle reader?
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1 comment:
I watched this video this morning, too. I didn't read anyone's comments. I didn't feel using a gun on the computer was threatening to any person in any way. Personally, I approve of his actions. He's fed up with her disrespect (assuming authenticity is proven) toward him. I would not choose the shoot the laptop, either. But I might very well give it away or some other drastic measure.
The only hesitation I have about the whole thing is him posting it on the Internet. On the one hand, she did the same thing with her FB rant. On the other hand, what if this is truly something humiliating to her? Should a mistake made by a teenager be uploaded for the world to see? At the same time, I also think the fact that he videoed the rant and the shooting actually displays the shooting of the laptop was in no way a threat toward anyone, but rather a simple (and extreme) way to relay that the laptop is no longer hers. It never occurred to me as I was watching it that he was abusive or threatening toward his daughter in any way, but I think if I hadn't seen the video and just read a story about a dad who shot his daughter's laptop out of anger, I might have jumped to that conclusion.
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