Young Girl Was Rude to Cold Homeless Man – Her Successful Single Mother Later Found Him

A confused mother took it to Reddit after harshly punishing her 14-year-old daughter for being rude to a homeless man. After talking to her sister about it, she felt she went too far while punishing her daughter.

The 34-year-old woman revealed she was raising her daughters as a single mother since her husband died two years after her first daughter, Jasmine, was born. She was pregnant with Jessica when he died.

After his untimely demise, the woman's financial condition deteriorated. She didn't have a well-paying job, so she had to sacrifice a lot to make her ends meet while raising her daughters.

OP (Original Poster) revealed that she had worked very hard to reach where she is today. While working part-time and looking after her daughters, she somehow got a degree and also managed to get a high-paying job.

She knew what it felt like to be at the bottom of society, so she always sympathized with homeless people and believed her daughters felt the same, but she was wrong. She explained:

"Point is, I know how [expletive] hard it is to be at the bottom of society, and my daughters know this, which is why I was livid at my daughter's actions."

The woman lost her cool when Jasmine showed her a video of Jessica misbehaving with a homeless man because she never expected this from her.

Jessica cried in front of her mother the following day

When the homeless man asked Jessica for money, she replied, "Stop asking me for money! You'd earn it yourself if you weren't so [expletive] lazy and spending what you earned on substances."

Moreover, when the poor man complained about the cold weather, the girl told him he was living someone's holiday since people love camping in winters.

After watching the video, OP (Original Poster) stepped outside the house with Jessica to find the homeless man. Once they spotted the man, OP asked her daughter to apologize to him.

She felt this wasn't enough, so she asked Jessica to pay £20 for a hotel room for the man. She also asked her to volunteer at a food bank to teach her how to be empathetic.

OP still felt the punishment wasn't harsh enough, so she decided to make her daughter sleep outside the house. Jessica was initially reluctant, but she chose to sleep outside because her mother gave her another option that she didn't like. OP explained:

"She was reluctant to do it, but chose it over the option of not having access to her phone until the Christmas holidays are over."

Jessica cried in front of her mother the following day, telling her how horrible it felt to sleep under the sky. She also complained about waking up multiple times because of the birds.

When OP asked her if she would like to sleep outside every day, Jessica started to cry even more, which showed she felt terrible about her actions. Later that day, when OP returned home from work, she found her daughter making meals for homeless people outside their house.

She felt proud of her daughter and thought she punished her the right way. It wasn't until her sister came over to her place that she realized what she did was too harsh.

OP's sister found out about the punishment through her son, who was studying in Jessica's school. She told OP's nephew about how her mother made her sleep outside the house.

OP's sister believed the punishment was too harsh for Jessica. She said paying for the hotel room and volunteering at the food bank was enough and that making her sleep outside the house was a horrible decision.

After listening to her sister's opinions, OP posted her story on Reddit to ask others if she did the right thing. Another Redditor named deed42 wrote:

"NTA. Sounds like the apology and £20 wasn’t enough. Walking a mile in their shoes taught her empathy."

SunshineMassacre praised OP for handling the situation well because her punishment taught her daughter a lesson she would never forget. They also added that OP doesn't need to feel guilty because she never forced her daughter to sleep outside.

Most users supported OP's decision to make Jessica sleep outside. If you liked this article, you might like this one about a father who made his daughter sleep in the backyard after she lied to him about something.