Parents punish their teen...is this appropriate or too severe?

I love it . Congratulations to the parents for dreaming up this one! I bet it’s not down south.

Seems sort of like a dream punishment for a kid. It might be hot but I wouldn’t be shocked if a friend wasn’t all, “here, use my iPhone all day”. From the picture the kid is pretty far from the house so he doesn’t have to deal with normal household shit.

Sign me up..

I was sent an advance copy of his book report. It’s just page after page of:

I am learning not to get caught.
I am learning not to get caught.
I am learning not to get caught….

He’s spent a month out there without completing the assignment? it doesn’t seem much of a punishment at all, except it being inside a tent. I’d never do that to someone where it’s already hot.

I had to laugh at your answer and then also agree with you @DoNotKnowMuch as the more I got caught making dumb moves the better I got at keeping my parents from finding out.

I applaud the parents for their creativity but if he’s been out there for over a month… either they better be some big books he’s reading and writing book reports on or he’s actually enjoying his time in the tent.

Not only is this a stupid consequence for stealing, but it is ineffective.

Too light.
He should have been abandoned in the woods, like those badass parents in Japan did with their 7 year old son.

After reading the article, he seems quite happy. He doesn’t look like he is receiving a punishment. Boys like that stuff like that don’t they, now if it was me, I would be screaming like a baby.

The main thing I notice that seems unconsciously off, is making literacy and being outdoors out to be punishments. Some people might like to be banished to nature to read and write.

^ That. I struggle to find the punishment, and I’m glad the kid seems to agree.

Now that I think about it this is sort of a microcosm of Australia.

Criminal banished to the desert to suffer.

Punishment? I would have loved that as a kid. I wouldn’t have done anything like he did in the first place, but please… that is not a punishment. Getting peace and quiet? Looking at the stars? Reading books? Yes, please.

And I agree with the others who mentioned using literacy as a form of punishment. Completely stupid parenting in that regard.

Not much of a punishement really. Meh.

How to create a teenage martyr.

They need to breed mosquitos on their backyard (don’t give the kid any money to buy mosquito repellent) and it will become a worthy punishment. Soon or later the kid would beg to be allowed inside the house.

They should build him a tree house for the ultimate punishment.

Seems like a cushy punishment really. At least they are thinking out of the box, perhaps steal all his favorite things and leave him with nothing would have worked better?

@jca LOL very good!

When my daughter was 16 we had the blow out of all blow outs over her messy room and attitude. I completely unplugged her, it wasn’t pretty. No phone, TV, computer, MP3 player, video games. The big disconnect.

Ya gotta go for the jugular. haha

No. The parents have already failed their job, so they need to get out of the picture. He should be ordered out of the house with whatever he can carry and not allowed back until he has learned to pretend to be normal, or busted by the cops and released after serving his sentence. Millions of kids hit the road every spring and learn how the world works by participating in it.