‘I cancelled my daughter’s sixteenth party after her disgraceful behaviour’

Following repeated warnings about his daughter’s unacceptable behaviour, a father took the decision to cancel her 16th birthday party. Sharing his story anonymously to popular forum Reddit, the man assured his daughter that she could have a party if she stayed out of trouble in school – but she failed to do so.

While the parent was organising the exciting celebrations, he was flabbergasted to receive a call from a school teacher saying his daughter had snuck booze into school. After he took the decision to cancel the upcoming birthday bash, people have slammed the parent’s reaction for being too harsh – but he stood behind the decision.

In the post, he explained: “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.

“The party is scheduled for the weekend of January 14th and we have about 10 of her friends coming over. 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.” After sharing his story online, the dad was inundated with comments from others who said that he was in the right to discipline his daughter.

One commented: “You are a parent. And I think a pretty good one! She’s lucky she wasn’t expelled, honestly.” While 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.”

And 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.”