A DAD has sparked a fierce debate after revealing he cut off his daughter’s hair because he was tired of battling with her every morning.
The single father admitted that “every morning is a battle” with his seven-year-old, who refuses to brush her waist-length hair – causing it to become tangled and matted.
“I’ve warned her over the last year that if she doesn’t start brushing her hair at least twice a day, we’re getting it cut shorter,” he wrote on Reddit.
“Every morning is a battle”.
He spoke to his former partner about the situation, and she “agreed” that he could get it cut if their daughter “doesn’t take responsibility for her cleanliness.”
And as he also has long hair, he’s tried to use himself as an example to show that if he can look after his hair – she should be able to as well.
“I’ve shown her multiple times how I bring my hair over my chest to brush the bottom, which she doesn’t have the dexterity to do,” he explained.
“I brush from the bottom and slowly work my way up; I know how to brush hair since mine is long.
“She puts no effort into it and puts the brush down and wanders off to play games and this is where the argument comes in.
“She doesn’t have to be self-sufficient, but she needs to at least try.”
He’s also splashed out on different hair products and brushes to make the brushing process less painful for his little girl.
Things came to a head one morning after another row, when he told her to go and get the scissors and sit down in front of him, after which he “cut her hair to about an inch below her shoulders”.
“She was devastated,” he continued.
“She continued to cry for another hour as I drove her to my parents’ place to watch her as I went to work.
“My mother and my sister both got very upset with me.
“My mum told me I’m going to ruin my daughter if I don’t start taking parenting classes and that cutting her hair was completely unnecessary.”
He concluded his post by asking if he did the right thing, but the majority of people insisting he “overreacted”.
“Cutting her hair as a punishment is devastating and you’ve got a lot of work ahead to recover from this,” one wrote.
“Forcibly cutting hair is done to prisoners, for goodness sake.”
“Saying ‘Okay, well, we’ve talked about this fifty times so tonight after work we’re going to have to cut it’ and then doing it later would have been a better approach,” another said.
“She’s only seven!”
“”Going from waist-length hair to just below her shoulders as a reaction to not brushing her hair is probably pretty traumatic for her,” a third agreed.
“You even said she couldn’t do the brushing technique you showed her.”
Others defended the dad, with one writing: “It doesn’t sound to me like you did it in anger – and you didn’t shave her head, so honestly I’m with you on this one.
“If she can’t take care of it, cut it. And there is no time like the present.”
“At 7 she is old enough to take care of it,” another agreed.
“My son is 6 and has long hair as well. He knows that if it isn’t cared for, it will get cut.”
Following the responses to his post, the father returned to add another comment, insisting his daughter had “bounced back already”.
“She’s not upset anymore,” he wrote.
“I guess the initial trauma struck her hard this morning.
“With differing opinions on what actions I should have taken, I think what I can learn from this is to set clear boundaries and consequences and always follow through with a cool head.”
