A mother in Canada has sparked a ton of online controversy after she made her sons walk miles to school while carrying signs explaining that they were being punished for “being bad and rude to our bus driver.”
The mother – whose identity will not be revealed in effort to protect the identities of her children – from Harrow, Ontario, posted about the incident on Facebook Thursday. She explained that the school had called her about her sons’ behavior and “that drew a line for me,” so she ordered them to walk the seven kilometers to their school, or about four and a half miles. It took the boys two hours to make the walk.
The mother also posted pictures of the boys carrying the signs she forced them to hold throughout the entire walk.
The post quickly went viral, and many parents applauded the punishment. However, Tina Gatt, the manager of community outreach for the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society, thinks the boys’ mother took things a step too far by shaming her children on social media.
“I don’t want to judge or pretend to know all of the nuances of this situation with this parent, but [it’s] something to consider when we think about putting signs on kids that says what the bad behaviour is and putting them in a position where you take their picture and put it on social media. We would be concerned, and not just Children’s Aid, we should be concerned as adults, about shaming children.”
This is the second time in a week that a parent’s creative punishment has gone viral. A father in Virginia filmed his son running to school in the rain after he was kicked off the bus for bullying other children.
As for the mom in Canada, she stands by the punishment, even telling CBC News that her younger son didn’t learn his lesson and had to walk to school again the next day.
Do you agree with this mother’s punishment? Do you think she was wrong to post about it on social media? Let us know below and share this with your friends and family on Facebook!
More About:Lifestyle