Dad’s awesome PSA to parents: stop publicly shaming kids

Recently, there’s been a not-so-cool trend online. . . gulp. Involving parenting. Double gulp. Parents have taken to shaming their kids by forcing them to undergo awful haircuts, videotaping the cut, and posting it online. Why? As a sort of disciplinary tactic to punish their kids when they’ve done wrong. Definitely not OK.

That’s why we were feeling really uncomfortable watching a video posted by Wayman Gresham that has gone totally viral. It looked as though Wayman was going to be giving his son, Isaiah, the haircut treatment. The video starts with Isaiah sitting in a chair staring at the ground, looking like a hurt puppy as his father stands over him holding a pair of clippers.

“I’m here to teach my son a lesson,” Wayman says in the video. “One thing is clear: I don’t teach my son to mess up in school…when it’s time to do the right thing, I expect for my son to not forget what he has learned. Now today I’m pretty sure you’ve seen many videos with parents cutting their kids hair. And today, I think I’m gonna follow suit.”

He then claims he’s going to give his son a “bald head, messed up haircut” because he’s “not happy with him.” And we all wince for Isaiah…until Wayman stops and says, “Wait a minute.”

Then asks his son for a hug, and the two embrace, his son whimpering. Wayman uses this moment to call out parents who shame their kids on social media. OH, THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT TWIST. Isaiah runs off, leaving Wayman to hammer his point home in the best way.

“There’s no way in the world I would ever embarrass my son like that,” Wayman says to the camera. “Good parenting starts before he even gets to the point of being out of control. Good parenting is letting your child know that you love them regardless of what they are and who they are and showing them the way by example.” 

Wayman also posted a status two days later clarifying his views on discipline: that he is not against it . . but IS against public humiliation.

The video has now been viewed over 19 million times and shared over 500,000 times. . . for good reason! We are SO HAPPY to see this much-needed video making its rounds. Embarrassing and humiliating your child online as a disciplinary is not OK, and we love this father-son duo who are taking a stand against child-shaming! Parenting done RIGHT. Check out the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUaD0A-i_gA