A Texas dad is going viral after devising a genius way to punish his teenager daughter — all while making plenty of hilarious social media posts.
The wild saga started after Larry Sumpter and Tawnya Ford found out that their 15-year-old daughter, Madelynn, had helped sneak boys into a slumber party, TODAY reported. Instead of handing down their own punishment, the couple gave Madelynn a choice.
"We said you can either go a month without a phone, or two weeks without a phone but we have complete control of your social media," Ford told TODAY.
Madelynn chose the second option, but it's possible she may now be regretting that decision.
The social media takeover began on Nov. 11, and the teenager's parents — especially Sumpter, her father — have gone all-out. Sumpter, 43, has spent the past several days posting outrageous selfies on Instagram and filming elaborate dance routines on the short video app TikTok.
One particularly ridiculous video, posted on Madelynn's TikTok account and reshared on Sumpter's Facebook page, shows the father of six rocking daisy dukes and jamming out to a country song with his adult son-in-law.
"Here we go! Parent take over day 3!!! She definitely should have chosen the month of grounding instead of 2 weeks and giving us access to all of her social media!!' Sumter's post read. "This is the last one to be shared to FB so go follow her TikTok!! Shout out to Hunter Tomlinson for the backup!!😂😂 #parenttakeover #parentingwin #makebetterchoices."
Other videos feature the dad choreographing a hip-hop dance with one of his friends, and flaunting a captain's hat as he lip-syncs rap music with his family. It's a creative outlet Sumter is apparently starting to enjoy.
"After the first day, Madelynn was like, ‘I changed my mind, I choose the one month,'" Ford told TODAY. "[Her dad] told her, 'No. I’m too invested. I have too many ideas. We're sticking with the two weeks.' He’s loving it. I think he's gonna make his own TikTok account when this over."
On Instagram, the punishment has been equally excruciating. First, Sumter and Ford shared a photo of Madelynn, announcing their impending takeover.
"Be on the lookout for some amazing Instagram posts, Snapchats and TikToks from her parents!!" the post read.
Sumter has gone on to share several selfies, using ironic captions such as "Felt cute. Might delete later." and "I wonder what Maddi is doing without her phone..."
It's impossible to guess what else Sumter has in store, but, according to the punishment, he still has a few more days with Madelynn's social media pages. After that, it seems as though some fans will be clamoring for him to launch his own.
