15-year-old Madelynn Sumpter of Denton, Texas just lived through an excruciating few weeks. For making a few bad decisions.
Bad decision number one was helping to sneak boys into a slumber party. That’s the kind of thing most parents would take exception to. And the kind of thing most parents would dish out some discipline for.
This is where Madelynn’s second bad decision comes in.
Madelynn’s Parents Give Her a Choice
Did your parents ever give you a choice when they were grounding you? Or did you as a parent ever give your kids a choice? That’s what Madelynn’s parents, Tawnya Ford and Larry Sumpter, did.
In an interview with Today, Madelynn’s mom, Tawnya says,
“We said you can either go a month without a phone, or two weeks without a phone but we have complete control of your social media.”
Madelynn chose door number two, however, she quickly learned it wasn’t the lesser of two evils.
It’s not surprising she chose as she did. Because from her perspective—at least at that time—anything would be better than being without her phone for a month. But Madelynn is one of six kids, so you can bet mom and dad aren’t pushovers. And they aren’t. Dad got the last laugh.
Dad Takes Over
Caption: Felt cute. Might delete later.
When you’re a 15-year-old girl your parents can be embarrassing at the best of times, right? Well, Larry Sumpter cranked that embarrassment into the stratosphere. He’s taken his show on the road and has become a master at TikTok’s lip sync app. As for her Instagram account, he’s having a blast posting selfies and a collection of truly embarrassing pictures.
And while he doesn’t seem to get too embarrassed—he’s having too much fun—Madelynn is mortified.
According to Today, her mom says,
“After the first day, Madelynn was like, ‘I changed my mind. I choose the one month.”
She then laughs and continues,
“Larry told her, ‘No. I’m too invested. I have too many ideas. We’re sticking with the two weeks.’ He’s loving it. I think he’s going to make his own TikTok account when this is over.”
And as you can see in some of the pictures, he’s also recruited the help of family members as well. His son-in-law was up to a Daisy Duke challenge, and along with Sumpter did a song and dance routine.
The Torture Continues
Honestly, you need to respect this guy. In a world where it seems many parents don’t discipline or punish their kids at all, this guy got creative and got his point across.
Do you think Madelynn is going to remember this lesson for the rest of her life? I’m sure she will. She will retell the story until she’s old and gray—and it will likely take that long before the embarrassment fades.
Larry is Just Being Larry
Madelynn’s mom told Today,
“We’re always down to embarrass our kids!”
It seems that Madelynn is no stranger to her dad’s crazy antics. He likes to do things like pick her up at school dressed as the mascot while blaring country music.
So perhaps she should have been more wary when he proposed the option of taking over her social media for two weeks.
