A Good Dad is a good listener, a steadfast support, and a good shot?

A dad in North Carolina shot his daughter’s laptop, and you can watch him do it on youtube.  Parents everywhere have done so, and then have found whatever internet outlet they could to praise Tommy Jordan for setting a positive example for children and parents everywhere.  Why wouldn’t they praise him?  Obviously if every parent shot up their children’s things when they did something wrong, teen pregnancy and drug use would be things of the past.  That goes without saying.  I certainly think every teenager should learn that violence against inanimate objects solves every problem.  I am especially fond of teaching our children to seek to humiliate people in as public a way as possible whenever they feel personally slighted.  Revenge is awesome.  It also wouldn’t be bad if the next generation learned to avoid actually talking with one another to solve problems.  Who wants to solve problems when intimidation is so much easier?  Now, I will admit that it certainly is easier to shoot a computer than it is to talk to a teenager.  Teenagers can suck.  That much is true.  I remember what an asshole I was.  I am dreading my own children’s teenage years.  I can only imagine how much more teenagers suck when parented with the tried and true friends of lazy parents everywhere: fear and anger.  Scaring and intimidating your child into doing the right thing isn’t the right thing when the child is five.  It really isn’t the right thing when the child is fifteen.  I can’t help but think that this man’s problems with his daughter have something to do with how he chooses to parent.  In his little video he surely isn’t setting much of an example.  Those of us who are lauding this man aren’t setting much of an example either.  This isn’t good parenting.  It is taking the easy way out.  My parents did not take the easy way out with me or my sister.  I’m not going to take the easy way out with my kids either.  If this means that I won’t be able to humiliate my daughter on youtube by having shooting practice with her computer, so be it.  I'll just have to find another way to get a video to go viral.