It's a well known fact that parenting can be a challenge, no matter how well-behaved your children usually are.
Things tend to get more intense as your youngsters grow into teenagers, as they may start talking back and developing more of an attitude that can be difficult to deal with.
But one father has faced backlash online after sharing one of his parenting techniques which involved dumping his daughter's dinner into the bin after she'd made a rude comment towards him.
The Mirror reports that fellow parents on the internet weren't impressed at the father's inability to keep a cool head and resolve the situation with his daughter calmly.
The man took to Reddit to share that he was 44, and a single dad to a 16-year-old, 'Audrey' and a 12-year-old, 'Emily'.
He said he has a "great relationship" with his girls, but "Audrey can sometimes be rude and demeaning, saying cruel things casually when she's displeased about something or in a bad mood. Emily (her little sister) looks up to her, often mimicking her behavior [sic] which obviously worries me."
The man shared that he'd made a "nice Sunday dinner", but all hell broke loose when Audrey stormed downstairs in a bad mood.
He wrote: "She was being a downer whereas Emily and I were cheerful. I asked her to improve her mood please instead of ruining the dinner, she turned to me and unleashed her anger. To quote some of her elegant words 'Can you stop lecturing for once, you're annoying as f*** and seriously you're the one who ruins everything.'
"I stood up, took her plate, and dumped it in the trashcan. I told her since she can't bother to show me any basic respect, she should start providing for herself from now on.
"She said she'll make cereal and maybe I was an a**hole, I said no that's my milk and she should get a job to get her own groceries. I don't feel like I yelled at her, I felt I spoke calmly but when she realised I was being serious, she got upset and started crying and ran to her room."
He shared that they "haven't talked since", and both his daughters are mad at him. His younger daughter said he "acted like a huge jerk", but he admitted he didn't see it that way.
The dad concluded the post off by stating he won't be winning a dad of the year award, but was keen to know whether he'd been unreasonable or not.
In the comments, most people agreed that he was in the wrong, with one saying: "If someone is in a bad mood asking them to not be in a bad mood and accusing them of ruining something is probably not the right approach."
Someone else echoed this, saying: "This 1000%. That approach has not worked once in history. She's freakin 16 on top of things."
A parent recommended an alternative approach that could have worked better, suggesting the dad say: "'Your feelings are valid. I'm sorry you are in a s*** mood. But I worked hard on this dinner; hurting my feelings won't heal yours.
"If a plate or cereal in your room would better serve you tonight, okay. I deserve to be spoken to with respect regardless of your feelings. When you are ready to do that, come down. When you are ready to talk, if ever, I'm ready to listen.'"
Another Redditor raged: "Food toward a dependent in your care is not a luxury you are providing for good behavior, it is your legal responsibility....and I agree with your daughter, here. She's 100% correct in the elegant words she chose."
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