While it has provided a major hit on the viral video scene, one parent’s actions online recently has led some to question his overall state of parenting.
For those who have not seen or heard about it, North Carolina father Tommy Jordan recently posted a video lasting a little over eight minutes on YouTube entitled, “Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.” As of last Feb. 10, the video had secured millions of views.
The video shows Jordan, with cigarette in hand, talking away with a .45 caliber gun in a holster. This reportedly comes after his 16-year-old daughter complained in Facebook comments regarding having to take part in chores at home and not having the latest electronic gadgets other teens have.
“Hannah, you were grounded for three months for doing something similar to this and I would've thought that with a father in IT for a living, you would have better sense than to do it again,” he remarks.
Jordan then goes on to read Hannah’s posting, entitled “To my parents.”
“Since you want to hide it from everyone, I’m going to read for everyone now,” Jordan states on the video.
“To my parents: I’m not your damn slave,” he starts, prior to reading the profanity-laced diatribe.
After concluding the reading, Jordan states that he is “going to put a stop to this, and put a stop to it now.” With that, he aims both the camera and his gun at Hannah’s laptop and begins to fire away, hitting the computer in all more than half-a-dozen times.
“It’s about to get a whole lot harder today,” Jordan goes on to say. “I’m gonna post this on your Facebook wall, so all those kids that thought it was cool for how rebellious you were can see what happens.”
So, is this a Dad with a sense of humor or someone who may have gone off the deep end?
Online responses to the video have been both supportive and outraged at Jordan’s actions. Some say he went way over the line, while others state he was just doing something that many parents feel and wish they could do.
As for Jordan, he appears to be over the attention the video and he had received.
In a post last week on his Facebook profile, he noted that, “Never again in my entire life will I ever do anything that garnishes (sic) this much attention, both positive and negative. I really wished we'd been prepared or something. Never again will I have the opportunity to speak to so many people about anything…and instead I'm sitting here stupefied.”
When taking a moment to step back and look at things, I can see where Jordan’s anger is coming from and why he chose the viral video world to express it.
On the other hand, perhaps firing away at a defenseless laptop may not have been the best way to express such anger.
What may have worried me most in watching the video is two-fold – the fact that Jordan is smoking a cigarette and the fact he looks a little shaky when it comes to handling a gun.
On the bright side, at least Jordan didn’t injure himself by having one of the bullets deflect off the computer and strike him.
So, a good means to get your message across to your child or a parent who may want to think about taking an anger management class?
Hitting your kids as a means of discipline isn’t good and talking about shooting her computer for acting bad then it is even worse. Parents are violent and you ask why and where they got that kind of behavior? Parents are primarily responsible for the development of their kids including how they will behave.