Shine OnMom punishes daughter on Facebook profile image
Considering the number of kids who have TVs, video game consoles and/or computers in their bedrooms these days, "Go to your room and think about what you did!" no longer cuts it as punishment.
But an Ohio mother has come under fire for innovative, yet questionable, technique she used in order to punish her daughter for "mouthing off" to her in front of her friends.
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Denise Abbott temporarily banned her 13-year-old daughter Ava from using her cell phone or logging onto Facebook. But Abbott went one step further by doctoring Ava's Facebook profile photo to read:
I do not know how to keep my (mouth shut). I am no longer allowed on Facebook or my phone. Please ask why. My mom says I have to answer everyone that asks.
Abbott also added a red X over the teen's mouth.
"If she can't talk respectfully to me, she's not going to be able to talk to anyone else either," Abbott tells the media .
Do Abbott's actions against her daughter constitute indefensible public humiliation? Or did the cyber-punishment fit the crime?
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"I don't agree with (this) tactic," says parenting blogger Emma Waverman of Embrace The Chaos. "What that mother did is a form of bullying and humiliation. That will not teach her teen a lesson, but will show her how to escalate the war. When a parent and child are fighting — someone has to make a choice to end the battle and it is obvious that mother chose to go for a few more rounds."
Waverman says that social media is still new and the laws of common decency and respect apply while parents and teens learn to negotiate the space.
"Banning your child from Facebook and their phone is a realistic approach and is enough, humiliating your child should never be an option."
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Blogger and new father Matt Blair agrees: "There's discipline, and then there's public shaming. Revoking your daughter's Facebook privileges is one thing, but using her own account to shame her among her friends - and among the general public - is another."
As for Ava, the teen emailed NBC news affiliates with the following statement:
I feel like I deserved it because I was mean to my mom and spoke disrespectful to her in front of my friends. Facebook is a big part of my social life and it's how me and my friends find out what is going on and making plans and about school work and projects. It made me realize that I didn't want my picture on there like that because all of my friends were asking me what happened and what I did. I told the people that asked me and my mom why that I spoke to my mom mean when she was doing nice stuff for me and my friends. I know my mom always makes sure I don't get away with stuff like that and I was sorry. Thank you, Ava
What do you think? Was this mother's special brand of cyber punishment out of line?
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