If there is one thing we parents of toddler know, it's that they don't respond to shame techniques. The fact is a 3-year-old who poops in his pants might feel SOME shame when mommy and daddy express disappointment (though mine didn't), but it won't be felt in the same way as a 10-year-old or an adult who did the same thing.
This is why the hoopla over a dad who posted a photo of his daughter on Reddit, shaming her for pooping in the shower, is the ultimate backfire punishment. The sign was a joke, a permission slip for him to use it in her future yearbook. Haha, Dad. Depending on the kid's personality, it could either get a giggle or an eye-roll in 13 years. No harm, right?
Wrong. People were FURIOUS. I know, as a parent, I wouldn't do it. But the joke is really on dummy dad. After all, does a 3-year-old REALLY understand the repercussions of Reddit or of being "publicly shamed"? Let's hope not.
Ask any child therapist and they will tell you the same thing: A 3-year-old doesn't have the cognitive ability to understand public humiliation (after all, look how they dress). She doesn't get the Internet or Reddit or who is seeing it or even what the dad did and how bad and awful it is. She doesn't even know what a high school yearbook photo is. Sure, she may have "signed" it, but the reality is, he will probably just show it to her and have a good laugh. The end.
It's like when my kid told me the other day (she's 5) that she wants to share a room with her brother forever. I explained she probably won't. She didn't believe me. But you and I both know when she is 16, there is NO way she is sharing a room with her baby brother. That's because we are grown-ups. She isn't. She'll get there.
In the end, this whole thing really does nothing to shame the girl. It just shames dear old dad. Clearly he lacks parenting skills and doesn't understand his child or her cognitive ability.
All he has done is make himself look really dumb and created a funny story for when she is 17. Well-played doofus, er, I mean dad.
Do you think this is "abuse"?
Image via PinkMoose/Flickr
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Comments 50
No it's not abuse. No moreso than any other stupid picture or story a parent puts up on Facebook. It is a stupid father, though.
it's clearly not abuse, unless i missed the part where he beat her before posting on reddit. :/ but in all seriousness - he just looks like kind of an idiot in the end. honestly, he should be thankful she did it in the shower and not the corner of the toy box or something harder to clean out. lol
I don't really see it as abuse, I see it as something minor that shouldn't have been done. As parents we all do things and when we look back on some of them we realize, oh crap I shouldn't have done that. Maybe this is his first child? Who knows, but I really think people blew it out of proportion.
I don't think it is abuse but seriously that man is an idiot!!!
There are so many other things that parenst do to cause abuse. I dont consider this act abuse. What I call it is a BAD IDEA by and IDIOT father. He needs to realize kids make mistakes as do adults.Shes practically a baby! I hope he feels like aa HUGE ASS and learns from this. Wise up daddio and dont try to humiliate your kids again! Poor kid!
Not abuse, she just has an asshole dad.
There is no abuse, but I will agree dad is pretty much an idiot for posting it on Redditt. The picture itself is actually funny though, mostly because anyone that looks at it realizes that even if it would be used in the highschool year book, the only humiliation will really be having such a dad. I however love some of the signs that the older kids are wearing on the slideshow at the end of the linked article. My favorite "I was sent to school to get an education, not be a bully, I was not raised this way". Oh, I love those parents for not letting their kid get away with that!
sooo yeah i thought it was a funny pic...not a bad or dumb dad, def not abuse, just funny. why would you tear things apart and make them bigger than they really are? loosen your girdle, laugh, and keep scrolling for funny pics. jeez.