Dad Gets Flack for Stopping His Daughter’s Punishment

We all have to face difficult times in life. Sometimes we may feel as if the solution is simple, but at other times, we may wonder if we are still on the right path.

That is what one 40-year-old father experienced when his 15-year-old daughter, Kat, had a fight with his soon-to-be ex-wife.

They were working through the divorce as amicably as possible and were still living in the same home, despite being in separate bedrooms. The focus was primarily on the daughter, breaking the news to her gently and trying to make it as easy for her as possible.

Letting Kat Know About The Divorce

Initially, Kat was upset over the situation, but, in her father’s words, she was ‘a good kid,’ and he wanted her to know that she was his number one priority.

Things seem to be working out fine, but then something happened that changed everything. When the father came home from work, his daughter was locked in a room, and his ex-wife was fuming.

His ex said they had an argument about the divorce and the teen was being disrespectful. This wasn’t the first time they’d had problems, so the father thought it was something similar.

The Daughter Stops Talking

Kat wouldn’t talk to the father, but she did let him know she was okay by unlocking the door. The mother was sent away with money to get dinner, and the daughter came down to eat.

Since the fight with her mother, Kat has not spoken to anyone, outside of some minor participation in school. She doesn’t talk to her friends, her therapist, or her parents.

The father had no idea what went on, but he went on Reddit to find out if he was in the wrong. He also wanted some suggestions on what might be taking place.

This went on for a month, and eventually, the father gave in to his ex-wife’s prodding and punished the daughter. They took away her phone and put her on supervised computer time.

The father explained to the teen that he wanted her to have uninterrupted time to think. The punishment didn’t faze her, and if the ex was in the house, she would not come out of her room.

Dad Stops The Punishment

The mother wanted to apply more pressure, but the father decided he was done punishing the teenager. He gave her back her phone and let his ex know that she had to ‘mom up’ and make whatever happened right.

Not only did the ex-wife get upset that he stopped punishing the teen, her parents called to berate him, and they accused him of coddling his daughter.

After getting some responses on Reddit, he replied that it was not easy to remove the ex from the home, as the courts in the area are not favorable to divorcing dads.

One of the concerns was whether the mother had read the teen’s therapy journal. The father thought it was possible, so he took his daughter to get a small lockbox.

The father and daughter went to a park, and he let her know that he loved her and he would do what he could to protect her from anyone that was trying to hurt her.

Although she didn’t talk, she did cry for a while, and he feels that she seems ‘a little less rigid.’

In the final edit, he was dealing with legal issues and allowing the lawyers to hash things out. The daughter was doing better and was talking to him and the therapist, but they still didn’t know what had happened.

Let’s hope that they get through this situation as smoothly as possible.