She Threw Her Present In The Trash, So Her Mother Taught Her A VERY Valuable Lesson…

This single mother transformed a meltdown into a teaching opportunity about the powers of giving and gratitude.

There aren’t many jobs that are more difficult than being a parent – just ask Haley Hassell. While she found being a mother to Presleigh extremely rewarding and fulfilling, there were times when she wondered what had gone wrong. She sometimes felt like a failure as a parent.

Hassel recently bought for her daughter, Presleigh from Cantonment, Florida, a Pencil Box and expected her little girl would love it. Instead, her daughter said the Pencil Box was stupid since a lot of her classmates already used it.

Fighting her daughter’s anger, Hassel then came up with a brilliant way to give Presleigh a wake-to-reality call. The mother got her a Ziploc Bag, after which she shared the reasons behind her actions on Facebook.

“Presleigh learned a tough love lesson today,” the mom wrote on a Facebook post. “I went to 3 different stores to get that LOL pencil box you see in the trash there. When I surprised her with it this afternoon (just knowing she would be ecstatic) she stared at it and threw it in the trash and slammed the bedroom door. She yelled ‘that’s stupid, everyone in my class has that..I don’t want it anymore!’ ..WHHHHAT STOP COME AGAIN?”

“Okay So by this time there was Probably smoke coming out of my ears, and I’m trying really hard not to completely lose it on this kid that I have worked so hard to completely take care of financially on my own & make sure she always gets what she needs and then some. BUT I thought I had always taught her to be grateful & know how lucky she was, but apparently, sis needed a small wake up call!!,” the single mother added.

“SO before completely going Madea mad on my child I check myself and say, “okay that’s fine, let me go get the one you’re going to use”…came back with her new pencil box, which is the Ziploc bag. She lost her mind!”

She continued: “Suddenly the LOL Box she just trashed was good enough, and the Ziploc bag was horrible…but it’s too late for all that. I told her to get the LOL out of the trash, and we would be finding a child to give it to tomorrow..one whose mommy and daddies don’t have money for any school supplies or someone who may not even have a mommy or daddy.”

“I explained to her she’s not entitled to anything special, and she is taking for granted how lucky she is…” the single mom said. “So for now, she will be using a Ziploc bag & will personally be delivering the nice box to a child that could benefit from it. Maybe I overreact sometimes, but I would’ve done anything to have all the things she does as a child.”

“I truly believe changing your perception & just being grateful can turn around any situation in life. #UngratefulnessDONTflyOverHere”

Money doesn’t grow on trees. So it was understandable that this mom was upset when her daughter didn’t want the gift she worked so hard to get. But instead of getting angry, as many of us would be, this mom did something far more constructive.

She punished her daughter while at the same time showing her the importance of both giving and of gratitude. And those are lessons we all need to be reminded of at any age.

Source: AWM