Just the perfect amount of tough love.
When Haley Hassell’s six-year-old daughter threw a tantrum after receiving a brand new pencil case that her mother had gone to three different stores to find, ultimately throwing it in the bin, the shocked mum decided to use the incident as a learning opportunity.
Because mums are clever like that.
Instead of getting furious with her daughter over her selfish and spoiled behaviour, Hassel took to Facebook to explain how she instead channelled her anger into teaching her daughter a life lesson that’ll no doubt stick with her for a long time.
In what Hassel considered a “long mom rant,” she wrote, posting a photo of the pencil case:
“Mrs. Presleigh [her daughter] learned a tough-love lesson today. I went to three different stores to get that LOL pencil box you see in the trash there. When I surprised her with it this afternoon (just knowing she would be ecstatic), she stared at it and threw it in the trash and slammed the bedroom door. She yelled, “That’s stupid, everyone in my class has that… I don’t want it anymore!” WHAT, STOP, COME AGAIN? Of course, Haley was angry. Not only did she spend her time and effort finding the gift, but she also thought she had raised her daughter to be more grateful than that.”
The mother continued:
“OK. So by this time, there was probably smoke coming out of my ears and I’m trying real hard not to completely lose it on this kid that I have worked so hard to completely take care of financially on my own and make sure she always gets what she needs and then some. But I thought I had always taught her to be grateful and know how lucky she was but apparently sis needed a small wake up call! So before completely going mad on my child, I check myself and say, “Okay that’s fine, let me go get the one you’re going to use.”
Now, this is where Hassel’s great parenting skills really takes things up a notch.
“[I] came back with her new pencil box, which is the Ziploc bag [pictured]. She lost her mind! Suddenly the LOL box she just trashed was good enough and the Ziploc bag was horrible… But it’s too late for all that. I told her to get the LOL [box] out of the trash and we would be finding a child to give it to tomorrow. One whose mommies and daddies don’t have money for any school supplies or someone who may not even have a mommy or daddy. I explained to her she’s not entitled to anything special and she is taking for granted how lucky she is. So, for now, she will be using a Ziploc bag and will personally be delivering the nice box to a child that could benefit from it. Maybe I overreact sometimes but I would’ve done anything to have all the things she does as a child. I truly believe changing your perception and just being grateful can turn around any situation in life.”
