Teaching kids an attitude of gratitude is perhaps one of the most challenging endeavors a parent can face. In a culture that teaches “me first” and breeds entitlement, it’s no wonder we’re raising a generation of youth that has no clue how fortunate they are to have what they do.
In response to a child’s ungratefulness, we have a few obvious choices: to cater to them, to push back, or to teach them a valuable lesson. Though it’s often easiest to just cave into their desires and temper tantrums, thankfully there are mamas like Haley Hassell taking the path less traveled by opting to teach lessons in tough love.
In a viral Facebook post, Haley explains that her daughter Presleigh LOST it when she got a pencil box that everyone in her class already had. The furious little girl tossed it in the trash while exclaiming “I don’t want it anymore!”
Though tempted to go “Madea mad” on the child who trashed the pencil case she went to THREE stores to find, Haley calmed down and got a different idea that is inspiring parents everywhere to teach their own children the importance of gratefulness.
Read her powerful post in full below:
“Presleigh learned a tough love lesson today… I went to 3 different stores to get that LOL pencil box you see in the trash there. When I surprised her with it this afternoon (just knowing she would be ecstatic) she stared at it and threw it in the trash and slammed the bedroom door.
She yelled “that’s stupid, everyone in my class has that..I don’t want it anymore!”
..WHHHHAT STOP COME AGAIN? OK So by this time there was Probably smoke coming out of my ears and I’m trying real hard not to completely lose it on this kid that I have worked so hard to completely take care of financially on my own & make sure she always gets what she needs and then some.
BUT I thought I had always taught her to be grateful & know how lucky she was but apparently sis needed a small wake up call!!
SO before completely going Madea mad on my child I check myself and say, “okay that’s fine, let me go get the one you’re going to use”…came back with her new pencil box, which is the ziploc bag.
She lost her mind! Suddenly the LOL Box she just trashed was good enough and the ziploc bag was horrible…but it’s too late for all that. I told her to get the LOL out of the trash and we would be finding a child to give it to tomorrow..one whose mommy and daddies don’t have money for any school supplies or someone who may not even have a mommy or daddy.
I explained to her she’s not entitled to anything special and she is taking for granted how lucky she is… So for now she will be using a ziploc bag & will personally be delivering the nice box to a child that could benefit from it. Maybe I overreact sometimes but I would’ve done anything to have all the things she does as a child.
I truly believe changing your perception & just being grateful can turn around any situation in life.🙏🏻 #UngratefulnessDONTflyOverHere“
Her post received tons of praise. Ty Harris found the whole thing funny and wrote: lmao this is so hilarious while Facebook user Sherrie Liechty Salem praised Haley’s parenting, stating: So cool! People want to see moms and dads teaching kids those valuable lessons, and you did it so well!
But not every comment was as praiseworthy. According to Good Morning America, Haley said, “I got personal messages in my inbox saying that I was a monster mother … they were saying I was a bad parent and bad parents raise bad children,” she said. “I was just on a rant when I wrote it. I didn’t think people were going to share it. People were saying I was publicly shaming my daughter, which I don’t really agree with.”
Hassell said the mother and daughter ended up mailing the pencil case to a 5-year-old girl in Utah and sent over a few other school supplies. How did Presleigh deal with the whole incident? “Presleigh thought that was really cool. She understood once we were shopping for other children,” she said, adding that it gave Presleigh “perspective.”
