'Don't Lie To Your Dad': Does Father's Prank Go Too Far?
'Don't Lie To Your Dad!': Does Father's Prank Go Too Far?
Trying to pull a fast one over on your parents is never a good idea. One young boy was caught learning that lesson the hard way in a viral YouTube video posted Sunday.
Just before the camera started rolling, it seems that the boy made up a story about a kid bullying him at school.The video opens with the voice of his father explaining that if someone is trying to scare the boy, “I’m going to fight them. … I’ll go beat them up.”
STORY: Barber Publicly Shames Misbehaving Kid With Old-Man Haircut
After hearing his father’s threats, the son comes clean. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I was just joking,” the son says. Still, the dad — who clearly understands that his son was lying — doesn’t let up. In the course of the three and a half minute video, which has more than 500,000 views, the dad threatens to beat up the bully, and the bully’s father and grandfather, and to go to their house with a gun. “When I knock him out, I’m gonna punch him really hard in the face and he’s gonna fall on the floor. And when he falls on the floor, I need you to kick him in the head,” the dad says. “Alright? We’re gonna teach this kid a lesson!”
The son, scared that his lie is spinning out of control, gets increasingly worked up until he’s in tears. “I lied about the whole thing, Dad,” he says. “I don’t want to be a bad guy!’
At the conclusion of the video, the dad breaks into laughter. “You see what happens when you lie? You cry,” he says. “Don’t lie again.”
STORY: Mom Humiliated 10-Year-Old Who Won’t Brush Her Hair
But the video — which ends with the boy laughing as he wipes away his tears — might take the lesson a step too far, says Amy Morin, psychotherapist and author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. “Sending a message to kids about the consequences of lying could be helpful, but when your child starts begging you to stop, you’ve probably gone too far and it’s time to tell the truth.”
Morin says the father could have easily started the conversation in a similar way, explaining that if someone was bullying his son, they should call the police. “At that point, hopefully the kid will come clean. That’s when you can say ‘what if we did call the police or go to his house because I believed you? What would happen?’” she says. “That’s when you talk about consequences.”
While pranks can be funny, Morin says the intensity of this one may have shifted the focus away from the important lesson this father was trying to teach. “When you pull pranks, they often spur more pranks,” she says. “The attention was more on who pranked who best, rather than the consequences of lying.”
Teachable moments lose value, too, when they’re used as shaming techniques and videotaped for social media, Morin says. “You don’t have to humiliate a child to teach him a lesson.”
Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? E-mail us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.
