WHEN it comes to punishing your teenager, you can either ground them for the foreseeable future or take away their phones – or in extreme cases, even BOTH.
However, one savvy dad has come up with a rather unconventional way of teaching his daughter a lesson she won’t forget – and we kind of wish we’d thought of it ourselves.
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Last month, parents Tawnya Ford and Larry Sumpter, from Texas, discovered that their 15-year-old daughter Madelynn had played a part in sneaking boys into a sleepover party she attended.
Naturally, Larry and Tawnya knew they needed to punish their daughter and, after much careful thought and consideration, presented her with two options.
Either she give up her phone for a month OR keep her devices but allow her parents complete control of her social media accounts for two weeks… and much to the internet’s delight, Madelynn chose the latter.
Although we imagine the high school student must have thought she’d gotten off lightly, what she probably didn’t expect was for her dad to immediately start posting hilarious selfies – AND getting way more “likes” than her.
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After taking over Maddi’s account on the 11 November, Larry quickly got to work littering her formerly carefully curated feed with embarrassing photos of himself.
What’s more, the social media savvy parent even created his own hashtags for the two weeks – including #parenttakeover and #makebetterchoices. Genius.
Poking fun at his teenager’s social media use, Larry even posted a photo himself wearing a blonde wig and boasting an impressive scrunchie collection as he urged his daughter’s 3,500 followers to “save the mother freakin’ turtles”.
But after the “felt cute, might delete later” selfie, our personal favourite post has got to be “Flashback Friday” post to Larry’s days as a “mountain man”.
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And it wasn’t just Maddi’s Instagram that Larry took over during this time – he also posted some VERY embarrassing videos on her Tik Tok account.
Let’s just say, there is no more surefire way to embarrass your 15-year-old daughter than posting a video of you dancing to country music in a crop top for all her friends to see.
Naturally one day into the #parentakeover, Maddi asked if she could change her punishment and go without her phone for a month instead.
Recalling his conversation with his daughter, Larry told Today: “No. I’m too invested. I have too many ideas. We’re sticking with the two weeks.”
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To round off his two weeks running Maddi’s Instagram, Larry shared an adorable photo of his daughter when she was little with the caption: “I’m back sweeter than ever and ready to make some good choices.”
And while Maddi was previously averaging between 270-350 “likes” on her posts, Larry was got over DOUBLE this on each of his pictures – and even got over a thousand on few.
Needless to say, Maddi’s friends and followers are now asking Larry to create his own account – with one telling her: “Your dad is an absolute legend.”
In more parenting news, this mum has shared a “genius” tip for stopping toy shop tantrums – and all you nee to do is take a picture of your kids.
And this mum was terrified after seeing a “ghost” watching over her baby on the security camera – but didn’t realise it was actually her.
Plus this babysitter was left reeling when a cheeky mum said she WOULDN’T pay her for an 8-hour shift because she got a “day of fun”.
