A mum has been praised for her quick thinking when it came to her son and the punishment that she enacted afterward when she realised what the 16-year-old had been up to behind her back. The parent shared that she didn't mind her son having "privacy" by locking his door, and she said that it hadn't been a problem until he made it obvious that he wasn't actually behind the door when it was bedtime.
She said that she always checks on her kids before she goes to sleep, and when her son was unresponsive, she panicked, thinking the worst. But when she "took the door off the frame" and he wasn't there, she knew he'd "snuck out" to a party - and she prepared his punishment.
She took to Reddit to explain what had happened, explaining that they were currently "replacing" the locks on the doors in their home getting "custom" ones. The mum also explained she didn't mind her son locking his door for "privacy."
She wrote: "I check on the kids usually before I go to bed, sometimes his door is locked so I just say goodnight outside the door. Last night he had the door locked but was playing music. It was late so I told him to turn it down, no response so I knock. Nothing. I call him and it goes to voice mail, I'm panicking at this point and think he hit his head or something. No answers to anything we do so we take the door off the frame. He's not in his room.
"He came back at 4am and was at a party, so he'd snuck out. As punishment his door is removed since of the lock and it will stay off until he gets a new door in about two weeks. That door will have the normal doorknob lock. My husband and I agree with this punishment but he told his friends and one parent keeps blowing up my phone calling me an a**hole. Not to mention the argument I got into with my son."
She said that she wanted an outside opinion to help her know that she'd done the right thing, and was reacting in the right way to what her son had done.
One wrote: "Because this is a specific time-limited consequence - your son snuck out away from home and that's NOT a small thing! - I would say not the a**hole. You are ultimately responsible for your son's safety and at 16 I wouldn't exactly trust his ability to think out long-term consequences for actions right now.
"And WTF with some random outsider parent blowing up your phone?! Verrry suspicious. (Is it really another parent, or an older ringleader would be my first thought). I would offer a curtain to hang in the doorway for two weeks. This would provide some visual privacy. Good luck - parenting a teen isn't for the faint of heart."
Someone else said: "Give him a curtain for some privacy. Have some talks with him."
"Not the a**hole", another reassured. "He snuck out so now he needs to be supervised and it's literally only two weeks."
Have you got a similar story to share? Email: danielle.wroe@mirror.co.uk
