I threatened to punish our daughter, and my wife freaked out

It began with "No, I'm not sitting in that stupid booster seat you buttfaces," and ended with a dad being ignored by his wife. 

If your kids aren't delaying heeding your instructions, how do you even know you're a parent?

Kids not listening is a universal parenting problem, especially when you're in a rush.

But, as one dad found out, it can turn into a marriage problem, too.

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RELATED: Gentle parenting is gently annoying us

AITA for telling my daughter she'd be punished?

The dad begins an online post by explaining:

"My 35m car is in the shop right now so my wife 35f was giving me a ride to work today and taking our daughter 10f to school.

"When we got in the car and were about to go when our daughter got out of her booster seat. My wife and I told her to get back in it but she said she wasn't sitting in it, we told her she needed to sit in it and she needed to get in it right now because we had to go.

"She raised her voice and said " no I'm not sitting in that stupid booster seat you buttfaces." My wife kept trying to calmly tell her to get back in her booster seat but our daughter kept arguing.

"So turned to my daughter and told her if she didn't get back in her booster seat she would lose her iPad for 3 days. Aftter this she got back in her booster seat and buckled up. 

"After we dropped her off at school my wife expressed how upset she was with me for telling our daughter she'd be punished all on my own. She said we are BOTH her parents and we need to discuss things on how to deal with her misbehavior together and it's not okay for one of us to just tell her she will be punished.

"When I got home from work I tried to see if she had gotten over it but she was still giving me the cold shoulder. I asked if she was still mad and she said of course she still was, and did I think anger just evaporated?"

Image: iStock

"Your wife is being very unreasonable"

The comments in response to the post generally sided with the dad.

"No iPad for three days should be a super mild punishment, your wife is being very unreasonable. Besides what happens if another tantrum happens with only one of the parents present? Cannot make a deduction without the other? No way," wrote one reader.

"Your wife was getting absolutely nowhere with that child. You can argue with children for literal hours and have it reach nowhere, you need a push and a shove sometimes and your proposed punishment wasn’t even all that bad," added another.

More forum members said:

-"Your kid called you a buttface with no consequences? Wow."

-"Your wife is permissive parenting, not gentle parenting. Your daughter was in charge of the situation until you stepped in. Yeah you need to have a discussion about punishments, but it needs to be directed to your wife because yikes…"

Finally, there was this pragmatic point: "What happens when one of you isn’t there? Trust in the relationship and discuss how you want to set limitations and potential punishments for different things but again trust in your partner."

Originally published as I threatened to punish our daughter, and my wife freaked out