An angry dad cancelled his daughter's 16th birthday party after finding out she had snuck alcohol into school.
Sharing his story anonymously, the dad explained that he had promised his daughter the birthday party of a lifetime if she was good and stayed out of trouble at school. The Mirror reports that teachers had previously made him aware of a number of transgressions after she began "hanging out with the wrong crowd".
Matters came to a head when he received a call to say she had been caught with alcohol smuggled in a water bottle. Taking to internet message board Reddit for advice, the dad said he was unsure whether he had been too harsh, or whether she needed to be shown discipline.
He wrote: "My daughter has been struggling keeping her grades up and hanging out with the wrong crowd. I have hired a few tutors to help with some subjects and she is seeing a therapist.
"She will lash out sometimes at home and I will have to punish her. She asked if she could celebrate her 16th birthday party at the house and I told her that I was fine with having a party as long as she stayed out of trouble and did well on her math test.
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"I get a call from the school on Wednesday that she had snuck in a water bottle filled with alcohol and one of her friends had to be sent to the nurse. I went to pick her up and she tells me that her one friend pressured her into bringing the bottle to school.
"She will serve in-school suspension for five days. When we got home, I took away all her electronics and she can only use her phone for emergencies.
"I also told her that the birthday party will be cancelled. She got very upset and started screaming at me that I was the worst father in the world. She stormed up to her room and slammed the door."
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Fellow Redditors sympathised with his concerns – and praised him for maintaining a steely resolve despite upsetting his child.
One commented: "You are a parent. And I think a pretty good one! She's lucky she wasn't expelled, honestly."
Another said: "You gave her some conditions under which the party could happen. She broke one of the conditions and now has to face the consequences. Good for you for setting boundaries."
A third wrote: "I think both going to therapy together would be a good idea. Endless action and punishment cycle doesn't help, to really iron out the issues you are both having with her behaviour and the consequences of them might really be helped with support from a professional."
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