"To My Parents: I'm Not Your Damn Slave."

I came across this video that not only shocked me, but, strangely, moved me (in a weird kind of way).


A fifteen-year-old girl, Hannah, posted on her Facebook wall about how crappy and how unfair her life is, because she has to do school and chores at home.


She shared this with the entire world on Facebook but blocked her parents from seeing it. Unfortunately for her, her dad, Tommy Jordan, runs an IT company for a living, and, well, let's just say her plan failed. @.@


I would like to transcribe (from the video) what Jordan read from his daughter's Facebook wall:


"To my parents,
I'm not your damn slave. It's not my responsibility to clean up your shit. We have a cleaning lady for a reason--her name is Linda, not Hannah. If you want coffee, get off your ass and make it yourself. If you want a garden, shovel the fertiliser yourself. Don't sit back on your ass and watch me do it. If you walk into the house and get mud all over the floor that I just cleaned, be my guest. But clean it up after you're done getting shit everywhere. I'm tired of picking up after you. You tell me at least once a day that I need to get a job. You could just pay me for all the shit that I do around the house. Every day when I get home from school, I have to do dishes, clean the counter tops, all the floors, make all the beds, do the laundry and get the trash. I'm not even going to mention all the work I do around your clinic. And if I don't do all that every day, I get grounded. Do you know how hard it is to keep up with chores and schoolwork? It's freaking crazy! I go to sleep at 10 every night because I'm too tired to stay up any longer to do anything else. I have to get up at 5 every morning to get ready for school. On the weekends I have to sleep with my door locked so my little brother won't come get me up at 6. This is all true. And I'm tired of this bullshit. Next time I have to pour a cup of coffee, I'm gonna flip shit. I have no idea how I have a life. I'm gonna hate to see the day when you get too old to wipe your ass and you call me asking for help. I won't be there. 
(Signed)
Your pissed kid,
Hannah."
How do you react to this? As a father, how do you feel, reading this? What do you do?


Well, you fire 9 hollow points into your daughter's precious laptop, that's what. At least, that's what Tommy Jordan did.


Yes, you read right. You can read it again. No, you can watch the video yourself, if you don't believe me:




At 7:10, Jordan says, as he points a video camera at a notebook on the ground, "That right there is your laptop." He moves a gun into the frame. "This right here is my .45." He cocks the gun and shoots into the laptop. (Scared the hell outta me! @.@)


Why upload it to Youtube? Jordan claims he did it so he could post it on his daughter's Facebook wall for her, and all her friends "who thought it was cool" for how rebellious she was, to see what happens when you're ungrateful and disrespectful towards your parents. And so that all the other parents could get an idea of how "to put a boot up their own kid's ass".


There is a range of reactions for Jordan's response to his daughter's inappropriate rant (on the video comment section, as well as on the original Facebook post). Some think he was way over the top, that he should be "castrated so he can't have kids." Some applaud him for bringing down the cane on today's self-absorbed, disrespectful teens. Some say he was wrong for responding in anger, and with such an act of violence.


Honestly? I am on his side, y'all. 


How many times have I, myself, come across kids, barely in their teens, acting like the world owes them and treating adults like they were their slaves? How many kids have I seen speak to their parents as if they were of equal age? It is appalling and terrifying at the same time. I would never have dared to speak that way to my parents, or any adult for that matter. And it is frightening to think what this child of ten years will be like when he is 16, or 18.


And with Facebook and all the social media, kids proudly display all that attitude for the world to see. And when they get "Likes" and virtual pats on the back, they think that it's cool, and that it makes them cool.


But it's not, people. It's not. I'm not saying that parents are always right and we have to bow to their tyranny. I'm not saying that we have no right to disagree or that we don't have the right to speak up against them.


What I'm saying is, if you have a problem, or an issue, something you're dissatisfied about, something you're not happy about, then talk to them. Say it to their face. Not to the millions of faceless people on Facebook. Sure, it may feel good for a while to get it all out there. Get all the admiration and support from your friends. But it doesn't solve the problem. 


Okay, you may say that "She's still a kid," it's normal to rant and act out on Facebook. I say that, yes, it's normal to rant and act out as a kid, but not on Facebook. Am I the only one who sees that Facebook and the like have ruined our kids? How they deal with things and problems in their life? People my generation still had a taste of dealing with problems without Facebook. Some of these kids haven't. And I say it's ruining them.


Stop acting like your life is the shittiest because you have to do chores. It isn't. Learn to be grateful, especially for all the things your parents do for you that they don't have to, but do.


That's why we gotta learn. We gotta learn that that isn't the right way to deal with our problems. That speaking so disrespectfully of your parents on a public platform just ain't right. That there will be consequences. So if social media is the only way to get to her, then she didn't leave her daddy much choice, did she?


And I ask you, when you watched that video, did shooting the laptop seem like an act of violence on Jordan's part?


To me, it wasn't. The video wasn't done in a fit of anger, in an outburst of violence. When he read out that letter, I could hear disbelief maybe. But by the end of that video, I could only hear how disappointed, and how hurt Jordan was by what his daughter did. It literally moved me. To me, he is just a father who was very hurt by what his daughter did, and just wanted to teach her right. Not to humiliate, but for love. He's just doing what a father should do for his child. Not be her friend, in this case, but her father.


Was he too harsh? Maybe. But was it warranted? Definitely.


I respect you, Tommy Jordan. One day, Hannah is going to look back on this and thank you. And if you care this much about your daughter's wellbeing, I have a feeling she's gonna turn out all right. :)

Comments

K.P. Fern said…
bad hannah!! dear me...for a moment i wonder whether someone hacked my facebook account. embarrassment to hannahs everywhere.
She sounds like she does have a lot of chores, but i agree that she shouldn't take it online, and certainly not in that manner! But complaining abt sleeping at ten and waking up at five takes the cake. For malaysian students that's luxury. sounds like a big baby!!
k0k s3n w4i said…
You know you're old once you start identifying with the parent more than you do with the kid.
SandraC said…
YES that brat of a kid needs to wake up n be appreciate of the people who gave her a life, a home, clothed n fed her. ungrateful pig. like u said one day she will look back n thank her dad
Liz said…
>>Hannah
Yup, HANNAH does sound like a big baby! xD

>>k0k s3n w4i
I knowwwwww. I have already begun to feel "old" what with all these "kids" around. Aren't you saying that YOU feel the same too? :P

>>SandraC
Yes. She just sounds like an ingrate. I've learned that a lot of things that I "hated" my parents for in the past, I thank them for now. So I know Hannah (Jordan) will one day feel the same.
k0k s3n w4i said…
I'm not saying I'm feeling anything. I was just making an observation. For the record, I neither identified with the child nor the parent. both of their minds and actions are alien to me.
cant watch the video, as videos are blocked in office. but i guess the dad has all the right to do it. violence or not, thats a seperate matter. im sure if he used a hammer to 'beat up' the laptop, it wouldn't make much of a difference. stil the same end result.

as to the other side of the story, we do not know how much 'chores' are put at her.
i mean "Every day when I get home from school, I have to do dishes, clean the counter tops, all the floors, make all the beds, do the laundry and get the trash." is normal or ok for that matter... but 'mudding' the floor and asking the kid to clean up after? telling her to get a job at age fifteen?
i guess we'll nvr know the answers to my questions, but just think about it.
Liz said…
>>k0k s3n w4i
I feel old when I see kids who I used to see running around in diapers now a head taller than me! T.T

>>danielchowtzeyoong
Well, I grouch and grumble when my mum gives me chores too. Not that I have any fixed daily responsibilities. In fact, I'd say I'm rather spoiled, cos I don't HAVE to do anything around the house. The issue here is how Hannah dealt with it. If she had such problems, then talk to her parents. Not bitch about them (and in so disrespectful a manner) on FB. Or, not by demanding that she'd be PAID for her responsibilities at home. That's just too much, imo! @.@
ManonaWire said…
I'm on the kid's side, her parents are dicks. The reason this dip shit made a video instead of just yelling at her and keeping it private is because he wanted to show the whole world that nobody fucks with Tommy Jordan. The guy's a prick. With that being said, facebook does ruin lives but I doubt she would get anywhere if her parents are anything like what she described. I believe in happiness, love seems to be a word manipulators use to rationalize their abuse. Social media immaturity isn't limited to kids either, adults do it too.
Anonymous said…
While I agree that Facebook was an inappropriate place to deal with this problem, I am besides that utterly on Hannah's side. I admit to not watching the video (I didn't want to waste eight and a half minutes of my life), but I can think of no reason while destroying a valuable piece of your child's property is EVER justified. If he had done that to an adult's laptop, it would be considered petty revenge and more than that a crime. And don't give me any crap about kids not technically owning property. That doesn't make it right. Destroying items that belong to them shows an utter and complete disrespect for them as people, as does your this quote: "How many kids have I seen speak to their parents as if they were of equal age." This DISGUSTS me. Children are no less people than adults, and should be treated as equals, not inferiors. Parents are not their children's masters or dictators. They are teachers, gently guiding a young person to maturity. Also, though I don't know the exact situation, this kid does sound like she's being overworked. At the very least, having your kid make and pour you coffee on a regular basis is an abuse of power.
Anonymous said…
Well I understand Hannah frustration and I also understand The father's frustration. But sometimes as adults we forget to understand we all are humans, we all have feelings and just like adults children have good days and bad days. They have bad moods and good moods, they have feelings as well. I see alot of adults treating their children as if they are born slaves. They tend to take advantage of the fact they are the adult and they have the power over the child. Number we are to teach are children and prepare them for adulthood but when you get to the point of asking your child to do every single thing in the house . Your getting ridiculous. When it gets to the point of you sitting on your butt and you think it's your child's job to get your coffee, water a bag chips a sandwich and so on and so on. Yeah your lazy and I seriously don't know how that is preparing your child for adulthood. I understand you work, you pay the bills. But with all do respect you made the choice to have a child. I'm sorry but that is your responsibility to work, to provide and take care of your children. Yes teach your children responsibility, chores, respect, motivate them to do well in school. Prepare them for adulthood but you do not as an adult have the right to treat a child as if they are to do everything for you. A child deserves to feel equal, and respected. My point cut short, alot of parents tend to abuse the power they have over the child, and it's not fair. Do not punish your child/children because you have a responsibility to work and provide for them. That's all I am saying, be fair. I'm working momma and I wouldn't punish my children because I do my job and provide for them. But yes my children have a responsibility in our home and they understand to make our home function we must behave as a family and commit to our chores as a family. As a family, that means we all clean together. But that's my opinion ✝️...
Anonymous said…
Your child is not your slave, and instead of getting upset with your child. How about you open your ears and listen to your child. I mean seriously you were upset and felt disrespected so you behaved in an barbaric Manor, you expressed your feelings. Why is it so wrong for a child to become upset and express their feelings? Might wanna have your child take a break from all that house chores and your work place chores. And teach your children how to properly express their feelings. Just say, I could be wrong but it's our jobs as parents to teach our children proper communication skills as well. They might be alot more successful with communication and working skills 🤔... Just throwing that out, hope ya catch it 😏....

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