A DAD said his wife has thinks he’s a “horrible monster” after his controversial punishment for their nine-year-old son.
The anonymous bloke has split opinion after asking the internet for advice on whether he went too far.
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Posting on Reddit, the dad explained he wanted to teach his son Tim a lesson after he repeatedly left his bike outside when he was finished playing.
His parents are “constantly telling him” to put it away in the garage so it doesn’t get stolen, but the dad said his son failed to follow the advice.
So when the dad left for work one morning, and saw the bike left outside again, he “decided to show him that our warning could actually happen”.
He put the bike in the back of his car and headed off to work, with his “distraught” son soon calling to ask if he’d seen it.
The dad explained: “I told him ‘No, I didn’t see it. Isn’t this why we always tell you to put the bike away?’
“I calmed him down and told him that we can make a plan for him to earn a new bike when I got home for the day.”
When he got home, the dad brought the bike with him and claimed he found it abandoned in a nearby park, warning Tim he “wouldn’t always be this lucky”.
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He added: “Later that night my wife was telling me that it was super lucky that I happened to find the bike and I told her that I had it the whole time and ran through what happened with her.
“She looked at me as if I was some kind of horrible monster. ‘Why would you put our son through that? And why wouldn’t you at least tell me this dumb plan so I could stop you?’ she said.
“It’s not like I had it planned out, it was just a spur of the moment decision as I was leaving for work and she was still asleep.
“Tim was only missing his bike for a day and I wasn’t giving him that hard of a time about it.”
The move split opinion, with some defending the dad on Reddit.
One commenter said: “You didn’t trash the bike, you didn’t throw or give away the bike, you just let your son see the consequences of his actions. Seems like he learned his lesson.”
While a second wrote: “Kids aren’t going to learn if they’re constantly coddled from reality. I think this was a really good way of making the lesson stick.
“One day of ‘oh no my bike is gone’ isn’t going to kill him. Especially since he got it back at the end of the day. In the grand scheme of things, this was a gentle way of teaching him.”
But others slammed the dad, writing: “You are teaching your son two lessons.
“The one he remembers will be about lying and not to trust his own father. There has to be a better way to teach your son.”
A second agreed, adding: “You taught your kid it’s appropriate to lie to get your way.
“You could have taught your kid that actions have consequences and made them earn their bike back. Instead you went with lying is fine behaviour.”
And one outraged Redditor, who was shocked people were defending the dad, asked: “How were some of you allowed to have children?”
