Any opinions??? I know I have them.....just curious as to y'alls....(remember..I was the "mean" mother..no MTV...No Simpsons...no Beavis and Butthead.....and made her do her own schoolwork) http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/nov/16/111602372.html LAS VEGAS SUN > NEWS > U.S. > GENERAL NEWS November 16, 2005 Mom Makes Teen Stand on Street With Sign By SEAN MURPHY ASSOCIATED PRESS EDMOND, Okla. (AP) - Tasha Henderson got tired of her 14-year-old daughter's poor grades, her chronic lateness to class and her talking back to her teachers, so she decided to teach the girl a lesson. She made Coretha stand at a busy Oklahoma City intersection Nov. 4 with a cardboard sign that read: "I don't do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food." "This may not work. I'm not a professional," said Henderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. "But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try." In fact, Henderson has seen a turnaround in her daughter's behavior in the past week and a half. But the punishment prompted letters and calls to talk radio from people either praising the woman or blasting her for publicly humiliating her daughter. "The parents of that girl need more education than she does if they can't see that the worst scenario in this case is to kill their daughter psychologically," Suzanne Ball said in a letter to The Oklahoman. Marvin Lyle, 52, said in an interview: "I don't see anything wrong with it. I see the other extreme where parents don't care what the kids do, and at least she wants to help her kid." Coretha has been getting C's and D's as a freshman at Edmond Memorial High in this well-to-do Oklahoma City suburb. Edmond Memorial is considered one of the top high schools in the state in academics. While Henderson stood next to her daughter at the intersection, a passing motorist called police with a report of psychological abuse, and an Oklahoma City police officer took a report. Mother and daughter were asked to leave after about an hour, and no citation was issued. But the report was forwarded to the state Department of Human Services. "There wasn't any criminal act involved that the officer could see that would require any criminal investigation," Master Sgt. Charles Phillips said. "DHS may follow up." DHS spokesman Doug Doe would not comment on whether an investigation was opened, but suggested such a case would probably not be a high priority. Tasha Henderson said her daughter's attendance has been perfect and her behavior has been better since the incident. Coretha, a soft-spoken girl, acknowledged the punishment was humiliating but said it got her attention. "I won't talk back," she said quietly, hanging her head. She already has been forced by her parents to give up basketball and track because of slipping grades, and said she hopes to improve in school so she can play next year. Donald Wertlieb, a professor of child development at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, warned that such punishment could do extreme emotional damage. He said rewarding positive behavior is more effective. "The trick is to catch them being good," he said. "It sounds like this mother has not had a chance to catch her child being good or is so upset over seeing her be bad, that's where the focus is."
I love it! And it worked! Piss on all the idiots that say we psychologically scar them by some embarassment, I was embarassed a lot when I was a kid when my dad would spank me in public. Didn't act up in public much after that!
Better to learn while the price is small. Besides what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Pos reinforcement is great but.....
If that were true, my entire generation would reside in rubber rooms. Hey, Roofrat!! Good to see you.
Hmmm...One might question why the school allows their athletes to play with low grades. Love and Logic parenting says just that. IMO: Though maybe a bit over-exagerated, letting her see her own destiny, on her current path, probably went a lot farther in the learning process than a lecture/yelling ever would. Bravo for parents with creative learning styles! I don't think that the punishment caused her any emotional damage. However, the national news coverage might have (saw this on my local news). Thanks, media! WARNING: Be careful talking to Roofrat ... It can get ya' into trouble. Just funnin'! Glad to see ya' here!!
The only part that disturbs me is that some idiot called the cops and called it abuse, abuse would be letting the kid think screwing up didnt have a cost.
I did happen to think though, since positive reinforcement is supposed to be so much more effective, maybe we should do away with prisons and just give prizes to folks any time they are seen not breaking the law.
No... don't get your hopes up too high! I think you have the "Trouble" market cornered I was just kidding.
We used to take our daughters door off it's hinges fo a week when she slammed it... Only happened twice. btw, she had to 'store' the door in her bed... hehehehe I was a child of corporal punishment and I like what I see in the mirror today
I would like to see one of those idiotic treehuggers walk up to a parent who is punishing their child and tell them they are doing "something wrong", and just wait for a response. They sure as hell don't speak out against your parenting when you have a .45 on your hip, do they? Sometimes this culture of ours REALLY SUCKS, you know? None of this would be happening if people simply learned what a marriage license really is and if they started holding their officials accountable for their actions.
hee hee That happened to a dear friend of mine - on public transit: Her daughter was behaving badly, not sitting, etc. and not listening to her mother's asking her to stop. Finally, she'd had enough and swatted her daughter's behind. A nosy lady jumped up and started yelling at her for spanking her daughter. My friend told the lady "Shut up and sit down; or you're next!" That lady did as she was told, too! The other passengers laughed at her and praised my friend's response to her daughter's misbehaving.
Wish more folks would stand up to the idiots like that. It also gets the crap out of the kids mind that they can get away with crap just because they are out in public.