A self-proclaimed Gen X father has sparked furious debate after he shared footage of the punishment he gave his four-year-old boy for hitting his mom – adding that he had no other choice because he can’t ‘spank’ his kids in a ‘Gen-Z world.’
Derek Longstreth is a Wisconsin-based dad-of-one who frequently documents his day-to-day life on his TikTok channel.
Most recently, he sparked fiery controversy after sharing a nine-minute clip of his son, Truman, carrying massive water jugs across the yard because he hit his mom.
The video garnered over 1.6 million views and ignited a fierce debate regarding the correct way of punishing children, as many viewers slammed the father for ‘abusing’ his child, while others applauded him.
‘All right little man, let’s go, you’ve got all these jugs to carry,’ Derek said to his son as he showed five water gallons.
He added: ‘He hit his mom today, so, spanking is out of the question because you liberals made it so we can’t spank our children any more.’
The father recorded his son struggling to carry the large water jug across the yard while offering him words of encouragement.
‘Let’s go, young man. I love you just so you know, but you’re not going to hit your mom,’ he said. ‘You can do it. I love you son but we don’t hit women in this family,’ Derek added.
The father then explained why chose the punishment of carrying the jugs.
Derek said: ‘He’s four. We’re not allowed to spank in the state of Wisconsin because some liberals are saying there are better ways. ‘Well liberals, what’s the better way?’
After getting his grievances towards liberals off his chest, the dad continued to try to teach Truman a lesson.
In the video, the child could be seen getting increasingly tired after carrying all of the jugs to and from their fence, with him saying he ‘can’t do it’ many times.
However, Derek encourages his kid to keep going. At the end of the clip, Derek asks: ‘Are you going to hit your mom again?’
Truman responds: ‘No.’ Derek also makes his son apologize for hitting his mom.
Viewers flooded the comments section with their opinion on the punishment, with many of them praising the father.
One person commented: ‘You’re doing good. You’re teaching him the good values in life.’ ‘That is a better way Poppa!’ someone else wrote.
Another user added: ‘Big respect to this dad. He gave a the kid a hard job with encouragement and reassurance that he loves him as well as why the kid had to do it.’
Someone else commented: ‘This is honestly probably the best and most effective way to discipline your child. Every moment they do this they are thinking about what they did.’
‘Good dad, raising his son right, teaching him to never lay his hands on any women especially his momma. Very good,’ another user commented. Someone else added: ‘This is amazing way to go dad.’
However, other viewers blasted the dad for the punishment, with many of them even branding it ‘abuse.’
One person commented: ‘This is abuse…. I said what I said. I’m sorry he hit his mom though, talking it out is fine. He’s too little for this.’
‘Lol. When people ask what the next traumas will be, it’ll be every moment being a phone in their face. Did you need to post this? Pathetic,’ someone else wrote.
Another user added: ‘You are the problem as a father. If that’s how you discipline a child good luck with those prison visits. Let the government control your life like.’
