There are images I could not get out of my mind after going through an article on how a mother punished her children by blasting their iPhone with a rifle and crushing it with a sledgehammer.

As parents, I know that you try “everything” to make sure that children do the right thing, and when they don’t, figuring out what actually works can be complicated.

For teens, the threat of having their phone confiscated or, worse, having their phone searched by their parents, would seem to be a powerful deterrent to bad behavior.

Social media networks provide a way for kids to interact with each other that’s not organized and supervised by authorities, as school, sports, and other extracurriculars are. In today’s society, browsing cell phones expose children to sexting, cyber bullying, and questionable content.

Taking away electronics is a common parental punishment, but this mother decided to take it one step further – and shoot up her children’s iPhones with a rifle.

‘I hereby denounce the effects that social media have on my children,’ the mom shouts at the beginning of the video, a gun in her hand. ‘Their disobedience and their disrespect.’

She then points the gun and the camera moves to reveal that she’s aiming straight for an iPhone perched on a tree trunk.

On her very first shot the mother blew the phone to smithereens, before having the man behind the camera put the surviving pieces back on the trunk so she could shoot again

With perfect aim she blows the smartphone to smithereens, as its pieces go flying into the grass

She defends her act by saying that her children’s life are more important to her and she would go to any extent to protect it and earn her respect as a parent.

She then hammers the remaining pieces a few times, her dog watching, before screaming: ‘I’m done!’

And with that, she drops the hammer and walks away.

Wow! I don’t even know what to describe this.

Way Forward

Many experts recommend that parents give kids a reality check by setting limits on phone usage that the whole family follows.

Having a real conversation can open up many doors – especially those doors that will lead to the right punishment that fits the crime. Children prefer to be taught lessons instead of just taking their phone away.

I feel what this parent did is an old school way of handling issues. She didn’t even know that nowadays with technology everything is possible.

Thankfully, technology has adapted to the changing needs of families and has developed new ways for parents to check a child’s messages and Internet activity from the convenience of their own phones, like TeenSafe. These new developments allow easy communication without depriving the family of cell phone access. Tracking a child’s phone is a solution that enables parents to have a “plan B” or option at their disposal.

In my view, the best way to deal with the issue of children addicted to cell phones is to not give them one in the first place. Let them know that they will have one once they reach a more appropriate age, unfortunately I even don’t know what the appropriate age nowadays is.

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