When UK mum Terri Day Evans learned her son had picked on the new girl at school, she was furious.
But while many parents might have simply grounded their child or taught him to apologise to his victim, Ms Evans went further – by tagging him in a Facebook rant condemning his “absolutely disgusting” actions.
That post, which uses the hashtag #iwillnothaveabullyinmyhouse, described an alleged incident in which Ms Evans’ son stamped on a classmate’s foot, breaking the heel of her shoe.
The post has now gone viral — and it has sparked criticism by a number of commentators, who say Evans crossed the line by publicly naming and shaming her child.
“Absolutely disgusted that my 12 year old son saw fit to purposefully tread on a new girls foot at school and twist his foot with such force it broke her brand new shoes (causing the heel) to snap,” law graduate Ms Evans wrote in the 22 February post.
“I’ll tell you something… if you so much as breath [sic] in her or anyone’s direction in a bullying manner I will personally hand you over to their parents for every demeaning chore they see fit for as long as they do…” the divorcee continued.
“Kiss goodbye to your birthday money as you will be buying the girl a new pair of shoes and a bunch of flowers!”
The strongly worded message was criticised by some readers as an overreaction.
“Why extend the humiliation? Your poor son. This will haunt him forever,” commented Alison Kyle on Facebook.
Top Comments
Do not agree with publicly shaming your own children, in any situation. Fantastic that the mother is making the child buy new shoes/flowers and taking away birthday money, but doing this to your child is bullying, in my opinion. At 12 years old, the child needs to be taught, not shamed. This woman, at the end of the day, isn't much better than her child, as far as I can see.
Is that not a form of bullying as well? I'm all for consequences but this seems a bit much.