Heidi’s 13-year-old son lied to her about doing his homework. Then he gave her a whole bunch of attitude about it.
Heidi was so angry with Aaron that she wrote him a letter detailing his punishment — and it’s the epitome of tough love. Little did she know, the letter would go viral after accidentally making it public on Facebook.
Aaron makes some money off his YouTube videos, but that doesn’t mean Heidi wants him to feel entitled. She decided to teach him a lesson about gratitude, and show him what life would be like if she treated him more like a roommate instead of a parent.
“The child is going to have a rude awakening today after the words he exchanged with me last night,” she captioned the letter on Facebook. “Not only will he find this on the door, but his mattress stripped, and the toys and clothes that I bought confiscated. He will have three options. Buy his own, rent his clothes at $3 a day, or renegotiate his terms of being a child. Mama’s done playing games and being a doormat.”
Scroll down to see the controversial letter in question…
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In 2015, Heidi Johnson was infuriated with her 13-year-old son, Aaron, after he lied to her about doing his homework.
Heidi came up with a plan for punishment, and taped the above letter to his bedroom door describing the consequences of his misbehavior.
“The child is going to have a rude awakening today after the words he exchanged with me last night,” she wrote on Facebook. “Not only will he find this on the door, but his mattress stripped, and the toys and clothes that I bought confiscated.”
Heidi’s letter went massively viral. Many people applauded her for providing her son with the ultimate definition of tough love.
Others criticized her parenting methods.
Facebook / Heidi Johnson
Heidi says she wasn’t trying to publicly shame her son. In fact, she says she meant to post her letter so only her family and friends could see it.
But when Heidi started getting tons of friend requests from complete strangers, she realized she accidentally made the letter public.
Pixabay
Aaron saw the note, crumpled it on the floor, and stormed out of the apartment. “When he could be respectful, and I was more calm, we would discuss it further,” Heidi says.
Aaron returned to his room. An hour later, he took it upon himself to give her even more electronics and items he felt he should have to earn back.
Heidi’s method worked. “He apologized, and asked what could he do to make things better.”
Heidi also wrote up a detailed, annotated contract between her and Aaron to solidify their new understanding.
The contract includes rules such as: “I can have screen/electronic time until dinner is served” and “Cussing and having a bad attitude toward Mom and/or other supervising adults will not be tolerated.”
After her letter went viral, Heidi was flooded with questions about her techniques in tough love. She returned to Facebook to address them:
“It is still a work in progress. This incident just happened last week. It has made a difference though. When I ask him to do something, he does it. Today, I was down for count sick. When he got home from school, we discussed his day, looked over homework and grades, and then he asked me to write out a list of what I needed him to do today. He did those tasks, and I allowed him a little bit of screen time.
“I keep all the electronics, and allow him to use it during the time I allocate it. If he doesn’t give it back when I say time is up, he won’t be able to have screen time again for a while. He can earn back some of his other items instead.”
Heidi says she doesn’t just dish out the punishments, she also leads by example:
“If you read the above link that has his expectations, there are a list of daily chores. He only has to pick two. That means, I do the others. We sit and talk daily. Most days we sit and have breakfast and dinner together at the table. We play board and card games. We read.
“I’m not a bully dictator trying to ‘control’ my child. I am a parent who has every RIGHT to have rules, expectations, and consequences for my child.”
What do you think of Heidi’s punishment for Aaron? Let us know your thoughts, and please SHARE this viral letter with your friends on Facebook!
The post Mom Writes Son A Note About His Strict Punishment—Then Accidentally Makes It Public On Facebook appeared first on Viral Tales.