KUALA LUMPUR, December 4 – When it comes to disciplining teenagers, parents usually use various punishment methods to ground their kids.
A savvy dad from Texas in the United States, however, came up with a creative way of punishing his 15-year-old daughter for breaking the house rules.
Teenager Madelynn Sumpter got into trouble last month when her parents discovered that she sneaked boys into a sleepover party.
To teach her a lifelong lesson, Madelynn’s parents Tawnya Ford and Larry Sumpter let their daughter decide her own fate by giving her two options.
One month without a phone or two weeks without a phone but her parents would have full control of her social media accounts.
Madelynn picked the second option and it led to 14 days of “hell”, with her dad posting selfies, embarrassing photos and videos on her Instagram account, captioning them with things like “Felt cute. Might delete later” or “I wonder what Maddie is doing without her phone”.
Larry proceeded to gain an army of fans on social media with many parents praising his unique method of disciplining his daughter.
Some even vowed to do the same thing should their children cross the line.
The comment section was also filled with many greetings and support from parents from all over the world including, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia, Denmark and even Malaysia, who gave Larry a thumbs up.
Larry, who lives in Denton city was quoted by Daily Mail UK that his daughter instantly chose the social media takeover option as she was finding the thought of giving up her phone for a whole month too terrible to bear.
But, the takeover took a humiliating turn when the 43-year-old dad decided to take his plan to a whole new level.
Starting on November 11, Larry uploaded a smiling selfie accompanied by an embarrassing caption saying, “Felt cute. Might delete later.”
He also decided to add more humour to his posts by wearing a wig and a girly skinny fit T-shirt.
Apart from Instagram, Larry also took over Madelynn’s other social media accounts including lip-sync app TikTok, where he posted several videos of him singing, dancing and playing guitar.
Ford told Today Parents that after the first day, Madelynn changed her mind and wanted to choose the one month option, but her plea was declined by her dad.
“Larry told her that he is too invested and have too many ideas to try,” she added.
Ford also said that Madelynn is used to her dad’s antics as he likes to pick her up dressed as the school mascot with country music blasting.
