Showing kindness to everyone, regardless of their social status, is a fundamental aspect of being decent. However, when a teenager in this story breached this principle that her father upheld, she received punishment and was grounded.
The father, who was genuinely worried, posted on Reddit to elaborate on his decision to make his germaphobe daughter sleep in the backyard as a consequence of her disrespect towards their house help. He sought opinions on whether he had gone too far with the punishment, using the title: “Am I the a$hole for making my daughter sleep in the backyard after what she did to our housemaid?”
My 16-year-old daughter is currently a high school junior. Lately, I’ve observed a troubling change in her behavior, as she consistently makes negative remarks about other people’s appearances, possessions, and uses inappropriate language. This newfound insensitivity is quite unusual since she used to be polite. My wife and I suspect that this behavior started after she began spending time with a new group of girls from school.
According to him, it seemed that she had become friends with a group of individuals who displayed unkind behavior, and she had started adopting their attitudes. He had multiple conversations with his daughter, expressing how her actions were impacting those around her. Unfortunately, their housemaid bore the brunt of her negative behavior, becoming the primary target for criticism concerning her hair, clothing, and manners. The father further mentioned that the housemaid had even raised complaints about his daughter using offensive names like ‘filthy’ and ‘gross’ when the housemaid cleaned specific areas in the house.
I took a firm stance and explicitly warned my daughter that there would be consequences if she ever used such language against our housemaid again. Last week, on the day of a party she wanted to attend, my daughter called our housemaid “filthy.” As a result, I grounded her and didn’t allow her to go to the party. She became upset and denied ever using that language, even going so far as to call our housemaid a liar. That was the end of the incident.
A few days later, my 16-year-old complained that she couldn’t find her iPhone. She asked me to call her number, and when I did, both my wife and I were astonished to hear the phone ringing from inside our housemaid’s bag.
Right after the incident, I confronted my daughter, and she vehemently denied any involvement, tearfully insisting that she hadn’t touched the phone and had no knowledge of how it ended up there. The teenager went so far as to repeatedly accuse the house help of being a thief before I stepped in and told her to stop, sending her to her room. Before continuing the discussion, I decided to check the indoor camera footage, and to my absolute rage, I witnessed my daughter deliberately placing her iPhone inside our housemaid’s bag. Realizing the truth, I immediately apologized to the housemaid and granted her the rest of the day off. Later, I showed the incriminating video to my daughter, leaving her completely speechless.
The father was in disbelief at the extent to which his daughter had hurt the house help. He expressed his view that her actions were not only immoral but also highly offensive, as she interfered with the housemaid’s livelihood over a trivial matter like not being able to attend a party. As a consequence, he grounded her and decided she would spend the night in the backyard, despite her being a germaphobe. When she tearfully begged him not to make her sleep outside with dirt, insects, and the uncomfortable temperature, he firmly refused to discuss it further, warning her that any attempt to do so would result in two nights of punishment. Despite his wife’s suggestion to be more lenient, the father stood firm, believing that calling people names and making false accusations about theft was absolutely unacceptable. He followed through with the punishment as initially decided.
A majority of people who read the story supported the father’s actions, agreeing that the house help did not deserve such mistreatment. One person suggested that the father should compensate the maid with a week’s salary and make the daughter do all the housework for a week as additional consequences. However, there were concerns about the teenager’s extreme reaction, as it was reported that she refused to eat after the punishment. One Redditor recommended seeking therapy for the daughter instead, expressing the belief that pushing a child to engage in self-destructive behavior was unacceptable.