Dad Dishes Out Creative Punishment for Son Busted for Bullying [VIDEO]

One of the most divisive things you can do on the internet is post about your unusual parenting techniques. For some reason, everyone thinks that internet access makes them a parenting expert. No matter how you choose to discipline your kids, chances are that someone is going to have something to say about it.

This is one of those things that irks me beyond belief, because, and read this slowly now -- there is no one way to raise a child properly. These kids aren't shot out of the womb with an instruction manual, and every single one of them is different. As a father of three, I can tell you that about 20% of parenting is on-the-job training, 30% is common sense, and the other 50% is guesswork. All you can do is play the odds and hope for the best.

That's why I say kudos to this dad, Bryan Thornhill, who decided to teach his son a lesson after he got booted from the school bus for bullying. Rather than drive him to school every day, make excuses for him, and blame the school like so many parents are far too quick to do these days, Bryan took action. Unusual action, yeah, but I bet his kid will think long and hard before bullying another kid.

Bryan's punishment is, that for one week, his son will run to school, which he says is about a mile from their home. Bryan explains that, because his son was also rude the morning before, he still has to run to school even though it's raining. See the video below.

As anyone who's ever seen a comment thread on the internet would've guessed -- yeah, there's a pretty sloppy debate going on over this dad's parenting methods. Some people are mad that he posted the video, some are strongly supportive, some are making it a democrat vs. republican thing, some are "worried about the kid's health," and on and on and on...

Bryan himself even brought the gun control issue into the conversation, by mentioning that he'd essentially rather -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- do some tough parenting now than worry about keeping a gun out of an undisciplined son's reach later. Personally, I wouldn't have brought guns into it, but I agree with his thinking on proactive parenting.

Obviously, there are punishments for kids that are excessive, cruel, illegal, and just downright evil, but I don't see this as one of them. You have to get creative with these things sometimes and good on Mr. Thornhill for teaching his kid a hard lesson.

As for anyone who feels differently -- do better with your own kids. There's nothing worse than an armchair parent. If you ever encounter one of these "experts" in your parenting adventures, just tell them your kid has a bag packed and is ready to be picked up. That usually shuts them up.