Dad faces backlash over unusual punishment for teenage daughter: ‘Think of how she must feel’
A father is wondering if he punished his daughter too harshly.
He went on Reddit’s “Am I the A******” to get a verdict on the matter. His 15-year-old daughter, Lily, loves fashion, but when she was caught bullying other kids at school the father tried to put his foot down.
“The teachers discovered that Lily and her friends had been bullying another girl and that Lily was the ringleader,” the father wrote. “I won’t go into detail but we were told that if not for Lily’s exceptional academic record, she would have been expelled from school. We offered Lily two punishments. 1) No phone and no contact with her friends for however long we decide 2) No nice clothes for the same amount of time. She chose the second. My wife padlocked her wardrobe but took out a few plain tracksuits and t-shirts that she rarely wears.”
The teenager got upset and then vented to her aunt.
“I got a call from my sister today, saying that Lily had phoned her up in ‘floods of tears’ about not being allowed to wear the clothes she loves,” the dad explained. “Lily told her that she feels like she’s in prison because she isn’t allowed to wear what she wants. My sister said Lily had ‘never sounded so upset.’ She tried to say that clothing is an ‘expression of her personality’ and that Lily feels vulnerable and insecure in the clothes we made her wear. We don’t intend to stop the punishment but my sister’s call gave me a lot to think about. Obviously, Lily needs to be punished for what she did, but I don’t like the idea of making our daughter feel upset and vulnerable.”
Reddit users felt the father’s punishment didn’t go far enough.
“Think of the other girl. Think of how she must feel. Imagine if she heard that her bully got let off easy,” one user wrote.
“That seems like insufficient punishment,” another commented.
“Your punishment is a complete joke,” someone said.
If you liked this article, check out this mom’s brilliant response to her son’s “appalling” in-school behavior.
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