Subject: RE: BS: Facebk Parenting: for the troubled teen
From: Jim Dixon - PM
Date: 11 Feb 12 - 11:52 AM

Rags: how did you learn about this video? If a friend of yours provided a link, either by email or on Facebook, I think you have a responsibility to tell your friend what you think of it.

Jim:
I found it when catching up on "news". At the time that I posted, this video was featured on major Canadian news sites such as
CTV News and The Vancouver Sun.

As a teacher, parent and grandparent, the use and abuse of social networking, evolving teen behaviour/attitudes, and parenting styles are topics of interest to me. I assumed that there are other Mudcat parents and grandparents who would consider this a topic worthy of discussion.

Long before facebook existed, "Fifteen year old girl syndrome", manifested itself several times in my own family, resulting in angry, frustrated fathers who tried to "control" their daughters and failed. I was interested in how Tommy Jordan chose to deal with it in his family and am curious what other Mudcatters think about his situation and his reaction.

My response to the video: While this could be made into a very humourous episode for a Sitcom, resorting to public humiliation and bullying in a real life family is unlikely to improve relationships. Now that Dad has publicly declared war, who knows what Hannah might do next in an attempt to advance her position?

It seemed to me that Tommy Jordan's rant was not much different from his daughter's. He felt that the 15 year old was mistreating him, her stepmother and her own mother, so he was going to show her, and the rest of the world, that he could make a bigger fuss than she did. At 19,344,108 views so far, it appears that he was correct, but will the battle end here?

It may be a happy visual for parents in similar situations, but I thought it was a waste of a perfectly good, freshly upgraded laptop. Although it may not have been as satisfying for Dad, donating the laptop to be used by someone who would appreciate and make better use of it could have had the same effect on the daughter, (goodbye laptop, no Internet use).

rags