Tommy Jordan. Hero or Horror?

You've probably seen this video - and you probably have some very strong opinions about it. That said, you may not have seen the father in the video on The Today Show this morning, so you should definitely check this out:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46652561/ns/today-parenting_and_family/t/laptop-shooting-dad-i-stand-behind-what-i-did/#.T1eXlHl-FkQ

Here's what I totally dig about Tommy Jordan:

He's human.

He's what I admire about Tommy Jordan:

He's smart, articulate, funny, humble, and admits when he may have made a mistake.

'Cause sometimes parents do.

Even Matt Lauer acknowledged how impressed he was with this guy - despite the fact that he didn't agree with what he did.

Do I think that his laptop mutilating extravaganza might have been overkill to some extent? Sure. But it was also funny (or at least to me anyway) and it seemed to do the job. And quite frankly - despite the fact that I'm not a parent - I wholeheartedly understand how some parents can get extremely overwhelmed when their various methods of 'punishment' don't produce satisfactory results. It's not surprising that some resort to fairly extreme measures in order to get the message across loud and clear.

And guess what? In this case, it worked! Look, Tommy Jordan admitted to overreacting, but hey... his daughter is now well-aware that badmouthing your parents and using profane language online is a very bad idea. I highly doubt that she'll ever do it again. Lesson learned.

Oh - and Tommy Jordan also saved his daughter's hard drive before he started his laptop annihilation. Clearly this is not some hillbilly madman who lost his temper. He came up with a creative plan, executed it, (ha), and is fairly pleased with the results. I don't blame him.

Why do I sympathize? Well... (sorry Hayes), but my brother was an absolute terror. He didn't respond to punishment at all. From the day he emerged from the womb, Hayes managed to get into boatloads of trouble - and virtually nothing... no punishment, big or small, seemed to have an impact. Sure there were tears, but he'd quickly forget the ramifications of his actions and be back into trouble in mere seconds. My parents had to resort to some pretty extreme parenting to try to keep him in line - and even then, their methods were fairly futile. And for the record, I don't approve of some of the methods my parents utilized... but I understand why they resorted to a few questionable approaches.

In any case, if we kid, I hope we never have to resort to anything quite this extreme, but if we do... well, then hopefully we'll come up with something equally as powerful, effective and all-around entertaining as this.