Last week, it was a dad forcing his son to run to school in the rain as a punishment for bullying. Now, it’s a mum making her sons walk 7km to their school because they were rude to the bus driver.
Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad. But the boys, aged seven and 10, had to walk the 7km in a small town in Canada, where the current daily maximum temperature is one degree Celsius. They were made to carry a sign saying, “Being bad and rude to our bus driver! Mom’s makin’ us walk.” Then their mum posted photos of the punishment on her Facebook page.
“Sh*t just got real for them,” she wrote proudly.
Within two days, the post had been shared more than 30,000 times. Comments included, “OMG ur the best,” “You’re fricken rockin’ the mom hat, girl,” and, “Awesome job, Mom! This is how you raise children.” There were more than 20,000 reactions to the post. The most popular ones were “like”, “love” and “haha”.
What about “sad” and “angry”?

Okay, so the mum was upset because she’d received a phone call from the school talking about her sons’ bad behaviour. I would be upset, too. She wanted to punish her sons so they wouldn’t do it again. I would, too.
Would I make them walk 7km in freezing weather? I’d be more likely to go for a screentime ban and a letter of apology to the bus driver. Would I make them hold up a sign so everyone could see what they’d done? Definitely not. Would I post photos of the punishment on Facebook? No way in the world.
Top Comments
All I can think is that shaming your kids like this is just going to make them feel humiliated, and small - and angry. Hardly an ideal way to get them to modify their behaviour.
If someone is attracting thousands of "likes" for the way they discipline their child, that should be a clear indication that there certainly isn't widespread consensus on your opinion that what the parents are doing is wrong.
Canada has a population of 36+ million. Thousands of people does not represent "widespread consensus" in a populations of millions.
Also - popular doesn’t equal right. There’s plenty of racist/sexist/otherwise horrible stuff out there with millions of ‘likes’. Doesn’t mean it’s good.
I didn't suggest tghere was consensus on the matter; the writer of the article did, by implying there was only one correct and acceptable opinion: the one they hold. My suggestion is that the jury is not in agreement here (despite the sanctimonious tone of the article).
Ah, fair enough. My apologies, I misconstrued your comment.
I'd say the author clearly has a strong opinion on the matter, I wouldn't have characterised it as being particularly sanctimonious.