We’ve all been there. Out in public with the kids when they are misbehaving, back sassing or just not listening.
What can you do? Well, some moms and dads yell at their child to knock it off, which doesn’t always work and almost always causes people to stare. Spanking could be an option – though not a good one, as pediatricians largely stand against spanking.
You could always ground them. Or you can take a leaf out of Nicki Harper Quinn’s book and literally ground them by making them do pushups on the spot.
This Texas mom was in a Hobby Lobby store in Killeen last week when her 10-year-old son, Kingston, decided that he was going to misbehave.
He wasn’t listing to her and was “doing what normal 10-year-olds do, touching things and bothering his little brother,” she told CNN.
Harper Quinn gave Kingston – who, according to reports, has ADHD and oppositional deviant disorder – a few chances to behave. But when he pushed her too far, she decided to take him into the bathroom and dole out his punishment.
“I took him to the bathroom and I said, ‘drop and give me 10 pushups,'” she added in the interview with CNN. “And he was back talking me about how dirty and gross the bathroom floor was, and I said, ‘Well if you don’t quit, you’re going to give me 10 more.'”
According to mom, he did the pushups, washed his hands and went back into the store. After that, she explains that his arms were folded and he was scowling, but he stopped touching things and wasn’t being “obnoxious” anymore.
Unbeknownst to Harper Quinn, this parenting moment was witnessed by another mom in the bathroom, Molly Wooden, who snapped a photo of the punishment and posted it to Facebook in support of Harper Quinn.
“To the woman in the Hobby Lobby bathroom. If my hands weren’t full of children I would have applauded you. As your son gave you the back talk of the century, you stayed calm and collected while adding 10 more pushups to his already growing number,” Wooden wrote in the post. “We need more parents like you, who aren’t afraid to parent their own children because of what someone else might think.”
Wooden’s post soon went viral, amassing more than 43,000 shares and 14,000 comments – most of which complimented the way Harper Quinn disciplined her child.
In the end, Harper Quinn learned about Wooden’s post and told Wooden that she’s thankful for it.
What do you think about pushups as a punishment? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
