While many parents have certain boundaries their children should never cross, a father’s reaction to hearing the way his son referred to his mother has many shaming him for giving him a punishment that just seems too severe. In a TikTok video, Peter Johanns shared with viewers that he would be grounding his son for a month, and the reason why has left many people baffled.
Johanns says he’s ‘grounding’ his son for a month after he called his mom ‘bro.’
“Guess who just got grounded for a month for calling his mom ‘bro,’” Johanns began in the video. RELATED: Mom Calls Out ‘Gentle Parenting’ Trend & Refuses To Feel Bad About Having ‘Feelings Other Than Love’ For Her Kids In the short clip, Johanns is sitting in his car, presumably picking his son up from school. As he speaks, his son, Elliott enters the car while hearing his father detailing his punishment to the camera. As Johanns’ son closes the door after climbing into the passenger seat, he tells his father, “This ain’t fair, bro.” Johanns just raises his eyebrows at his son’s outburst as the video concludes. In the comment section of Johanns’ video, users criticized him for the unfair punishment, especially after learning exactly why he had grounded his son. “You sound like such a cool, good, and emotionally stable parent,” one user wrote, while another added, “That’s a little excessive, don’t you think?”
Johanns’ video received criticism from a parenting expert, who condemned the father’s choice of action.
Johanns’ decision to ground his son for a month even elicited a reaction from a parenting expert, who stitched the father’s original TikTok video to voice his opinion. “Guess who got triggered this morning and then had a power trip on an underdeveloped brain,” Jon, a parenting educator, started his video. RELATED: Dad Cuts Off 13-Year-Old Daughter’s Hair After Mom Gave Her Highlights For Her Birthday Without His Permission Jon continued, explaining that Johanns’ reaction to his son calling his mother “bro,” can best be described as “a disproportional and unreasonable punishment.” “That kid said ‘bro’ reflexively, punishing people for reflexive actions tells me that you don’t know anything about the brain.” He pointed out that parents “punishing kids” in an extreme manner “just because you can” show that they are trying to “overcompensate” for not having any power when they were a child. “So, how about you go to therapy, bro,” Jon concluded. Jon’s response video received praise from viewers, who agreed that Johanns could’ve used a different tactic if he wanted to dissuade his son from calling his mother “bro.” “Right, a simple, ‘your mom ain’t bro’ is enough,” one user wrote. Another user added, “it might be worth talking with the kid about being respectful but definitely doesn’t deserve full-on grounding or really punishment at all.” RELATED: Mom Who Says She’d ‘Rather Die’ Than Play With Her Kids Gets Suspended From Twitter Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.
