There is a lot to be said for discipline, and even more for positive male role models. This video has both.
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This video is quite short, but the takeaway content is huge.
To be clear, this isn’t a new video, the first clue being that it is taken from the Jenny Jones Show, and actually that’s the only clue, but it’s enough. However, regardless of the time in which this clip took place the scene that unfolds is timeless.
The theme of the episode appears to have been “Boot Camp My Pre-Teen” in which frustrated parents could bring their young children on television to not eyeball military drill instructors while getting 30 seconds of tough love. Hilarity ensues.
It would be easy for me to sit here and make a case one way or another for this last grasp of parenting desperation—I was on the debate team. But I am not sharing this video to judge anyone. That’s what anonymous comments are for. Rather, I am sharing this scene for the simple honesty it holds and that moment where the instructor becomes the pupil (of life!). What could a little boy say to render a shouting solider suddenly speechless and obviously overcome with a swift kick of emotion?
This:
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Also need to throw this in there…. “I don’t have a dad” I think this really sums it up,don’t you?
The DI clearly balanced tough love with compassion. I’ve worked with adolescent boys for over 13 years now and something that I have learned is that there is a balance. I’m known as the “hard ass” on the unit. I raise the bar with these kids and what inevitably happens is that every one of them, at some point, reach that bar. That bar goes from being mine to their own and all I do then is help them maintain that bar. And believe me when I tell you that bar is set very high the moment they walk in… Read more »
While a touching moment it’s also quite chilling – this little boy seems in such need of a daddy he’s willing to have a madman scream in his face, making him vulnerable to those who might wish to exploit that desire – it is imperative we’re mindful of the distinction between ‘tuff love’ when it’s truly warranted, vs a child in pain acting out – two very different scenarios and hence two different approaches when we consider remedy.