'After a week with no electronics, it finally happened': Father takes son's electronics, only to have the punishment backfire on him

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 31, 2023 5:00 PM EDT

It's your job as a parent to try to raise your kid right. You try to instill good values and push them to be kind, hardworking, and to follow the rules. But of course, kids definitely do not always follow rules, especially when they're young. 

This person remembered a funny tale from when he was in elementary school. He did something to annoy his father, though neither of them can recall what the incident was anymore. So u/Zylly's father decided the best course of action was to take away all his son's electronics. 

Lots of parents find this to be a good option for a punishment. It can be super dull — you'll find yourself reading books, even if you aren't a reader, or turning to arts and crafts, or maybe making up a dance. Getting your electronics taken away as a kid is so infuriating, but since you're little, you really can't do anything about it. When you're an adult, you might look back and be glad your parents chose that method of punishment — after all, boredom is good for creativity. But in the moment, you just really miss your devices, and can't wait to get them back. 

Next up, peer into the hidden lives of everyday folks with their anonymous confessions. 

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  • 01
    Rectangle - 'My father... forbid me from using electronics for a month'
    via freestocks on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Father forbids me from using electronics, enjoys having a smarta for a son. M OC First post, so I'm sorry for any mistakes or bad storytelling. This is a short one, but as I talked with my parents I found it very funny.
    via u/Zylly
  • 03
    Font - So it all starts in primary school. I had done something to pi my father off (neither he nor I know what it was as it has been over 10 years). He was angry enough to forbid me from using electronics for a month. My mother as well as myself found the punishment to be excessive for what I did but my father had a row of bad days and exploded easily if you pushed him far enough.
    via u/Zylly
  • 04
    Font - Here comes the malicious compliance. He forbid me from using any electronics. So being the smarta I am, I packed every electronic device in a box and put it under my bed with all of them turned off. I could get up early without any alarm, but it never worked all the time. Some information about the situation: I used to wake everyone up by getting up in the morning and going to take a shower. And I made breakfast for me and my brother.
    via u/Zylly
  • 05
    Font - So after a week with no electronics, it finally happened. I woke up an hour late, I woke my father up an hour late and I did not have time to make breakfast for school. My father was not happy to be late but accepted it as a mishap that would happen rarely anyways. But all continued after i arrived at school for the 3rd period. My teacher was very angry because I arrived so late and I was punished by having to do extra homework.
    via u/Zylly
  • 06
    Font - Now comes the best part. This day was a project day right before the fall break. We had the same teacher for the day. One part of this day was a movie that was important for the lessons to come after it and the teacher would discuss it with us over the last week before the break. She got the TV and switched it on. But I left the room. The teacher followed me and tried to tear me a new one for leaving, but I told her that I had been forbidden from using any electronics for three more weeks
    via u/Zylly
  • 07
    Font - My teacher was strict but knew that I was a stubborn b and that she would have to call my father to lift the punishment. So she called my father as I refused that as well and instead of doing it to me tore him a new one for not being specific. My father then asked to be put on speaker and lifted the punishment entirely. It seems that he had had enough of me being a smarta at that point.
    via u/Zylly
  • 08
    Rectangle - [deleted] Being a smarta can help sometimes, huh.
    via u/deleted
  • 09
    Font - A_WILD_S__APPEARS I feel like OP got lucky here. If I were in this situation my dad would have gone with "you knew what I meant you little sh" and not given any ground.
    via u/A_WILD_S***_APPEARS
  • 10
    Rectangle - IknowKarazy Actually: what the h? He depends on YOU to wake him up? He's a grown-a man!
    via u/IknowKarazy
  • 11
    Font - cexshun My version of this was back in 1998. I was the only one in the house that knew much about the computer. I was grounded from the computer for a month for some stupid s (helicopter parents). The very next day, the computer took a s Parents asked me to fix it. I told them I couldn't, I was grounded from the computer. It didn't go over well.
    via u/cexshun
  • 12
    Font - Teh_Hammerer This is brilliant! Did you father learn to be specific from there on and out?
    via u/Teh_Hammerer
  • 13
    Font - The best way to learn to be specific, Imagine you find a genie in a bottle who gives you three wishes. Now imagine that genie is also the worst troll ever.
    via r/MaliciousCompliance
  • 14
    Font - [deleted] You weren't using the electronic device (the TV at school) though. Your teacher was.
    via u/deleted
  • 15
    Font - [deleted] For years when dsl was a new technology, my mother used to blame me for my sisters use of our bandwidth. She'd revoke my internet privileges because of it, and because i couldn't fix it. Since they wouldn't hear me when i explained why nothing was working and how it actually could be fixed. Eventually. I set up a small macro to change some of the settings in the router, more or less scramble some of the more important information while i was away at a friends for a few days. Thi
    via u/deleted
  • 16
    Font - Router went down, and the phone company rep couldn't fix it remotely at all, which i wasn't too surprised about considering most of them know absolutely nothing, and decided to send a new router. Eventually the new router came, same make and model, which meant the macro would still work. Guess who still had no internet? Parents freaked out and demanded i fix it this time being the tech geek.
    via u/deleted
  • 17
    Font - Now, i hadn't had internet for a month at this point, so i went in to the settings pretended to fiddle around, and flat out told them it was my sisters fault and i couldn't fix it until she stopped doing her webcam streaming and YouTube video uploads, and the other high bandwidth c she was doing at the time. Made up some excuse about over heating the router or something. Now, the only thing they hated more than me, was not getting what they want.
    via u/deleted
  • 18
    Font - So they immediately banned my sister from constantly using up bandwidth for 6 hours every night and grounded her for a week or so. She got an hour or bandwidth use nightly after that, and because she stopped doing clogging it, I stopped being punished for her bulls. Not really malicious compliance. But it reminded me of the whole thing
    via u/deleted
  • 19
    Font - Zylly OP Also a nice one. My brother and i had the same problem once but my father could fix it luckily.
    via u/Zylly
  • 20
    Font - o StanThe Apple Man I really doubt this happened. Teachers won't waste time dealing with that BS 19 Reply Share Zylly OP They have to sometimes if the child just leaves. In the upper grades (5 or higher) you would have been sent home, but in grade 3 or 4 you are considered too young to grasp what you did. Thats why the teacher was so agitated.
    via u/StanTheAppleMan
  • 21
    Font - My Mom once grounded me by telling me I couldn't use the phone. To me, that meant answering the phone as well.
    via r/MaliciousCompliance
  • 22
    Font - The_MAZZTer Does no one else have parents who would add a clause that stated: "except whatever is required for your academics, and any other specific exceptions we grant"?
    via u/The_MAZZTer
  • 23
    Font - SmackySmack Where do you live where it would be acceptable for a teacher to tear your father a new one? And to punish you with extra homework for being late? 43 + Reply Share Zylly OP Germany. This teacher is actually not a good one, she had a lot of bad habits because she was very old and had another kind of discipline in mind. She retired shortly after i graduated so she must have benn 60 years old or so.
    via u/SmackySmack

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alarm school malicious compliance kids malicious-compliance-reddit phone funny kids electronics parenting computer dad punishment Parenting Fail parents Father television
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