Saturday, February 11, 2012

Man shoots daughters LapTop

Full Episode here


This is a small Op-Ed piece in response to the viral video of a man shooting his daughters laptop.  There have been 50/50 responses to this video.  Some applaud the man and approve of his message to his daughter and means of conveyance.
 
Others like myself feel that there is a message here that is not being addressed.

The man begins by talking about how disrespectful and rude his daughter is.  Then goes on to be angered by her insensitivity, callousness, and language.  He appears to be in disbelief over his daughters sense of entitlement and stretching of truth.

He finally responds to her behavior by using a gun to shoot holes in her lap top.  He goes on to compares his own early life experiences as a model to show how grateful she should be that her life doesn't mirror his.

So why does this trouble myself and several other people?  First his daughter did not become a foul mouthed, spoiled, disrespectful young lady in a vacuum.  He himself is shown smoking, swearing, and publicly disparaging his daughter and responding to her relatively teen like behavior with violence.

He had parents I assume, and I also assume that those parents instilled a sense of money management, responsibility, and decorum.  I would also go as far as to hypothesize that his parents were much stricter and that he considers himself a better person for the experience.

My point is all the negative behaviors that seem to shock and amaze this father are learned behaviors.  Behaviors that this girl had to have exhibited before and not had proper parental parameters to correct them.

Further I would surmise that the daughters behavior is in fact a direct result of your parenting, and would suggest that the blame be at the minimum absorbed 50/50.

This father says after all he has done for his child he is angered and offended by her response.  I wonder if her response is that much different than any other teenagers.  I also wonder how many times in her life the father has indulged the child's whims.  She appears to have serious expectations, and in children, expectations are learned from our parents/role models.

To summarize, you reap what you sow.  However, what message  does shooting a laptop proves besides "If someone makes you angry, destroy something they care about".  It seems to me that this parental message may be similar reactions to his daughters.  Not the best lesson for what a person should do when faced with a frustrating situation.

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