Canadian mother makes children walk four-miles to school with 'shaming sign' for being rude to bus driver
'S*** just got real for them. 2 hours later they made it'
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Your support makes all the difference.A mother made her young children walk more than four miles to school after they were rude to their bus driver.
The unnamed woman, from Harrow, in the Canadian province of Ontario, gave her children a cardboard sign to carry during the two-hour trek in snowy conditions.
It bore the words: “Being bad and rude to our bus driver! Moms makin us walk."
Her creative punishment was shared more than 38,000 times on social media after she posted her parenting method on Facebook.
“My boys have been bad for their bus driver and I got a call from the school yesterday that drew a line for me,” she wrote. “So this morning we did a 7km walk to show them what every day will be like for them when they get kicked off the bus.”
“S*** just got real for them. 2 hours later they made it.”
The post also received more than 28,000 likes. Hundreds of people wrote that they approved her mother’s actions.
“Yup, that’s the way to do it!!! Good job!” wrote one commenter, “Omg ur the best,” added another.
However, Tina Gatt, manager of community outreach for the local Windsor-Essex branch of non-profit organisation the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), was less impressed with the punishment.
Having the children walk to school showed them the “logical consequence” of their bad behaviour and could be seen as a reasonable punishment, she told the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
But she said “shaming” the youngsters on social media was not constructive, she added.
"I don't want to judge or pretend to know all of the nuances of this situation with this parent," she said. “But it’s something to consider when we think about putting signs on kids that says what the bad behaviour is and putting them in a position where you take their picture and put it on social media.
"We would be concerned, and not just Children's Aid, we should be concerned as adults, about shaming children."
The mother reportedly contacted the CAS to share her side of the story after some raised concerns about her Facebook post.
Ms Gatt refused to confirm whether the woman had been in contact with the child welfare organisation.
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