While parents have different ways of disciplining their children, one mother's way of punishing her daughter for an indiscretion has been met with ire online.
A mother whose ethnicity is unclear and goes by the TikTok handle Bosselina–a.k.a. @TikToker @3ella_3osselina–posted a video of her snipping off her daughter's braided hair close to the scalp to teach her a lesson.
In the controversial clip, she was heard telling the "visibly Black" child:
"You were disobeying me today and thought I was not coming to cut this hair off."
"You are sadly mistaken because you thought that being pretty was so much better than being educated and listening to your mom, right."
The video was captioned with:
"One of the hardest things I've had to do! For educational purposes only."
TikToker @alyssaphobium was furious and shared the now unavailable clip and explained how Bosselina "damn near scalped her daughter because she felt pretty."
The poster added Bosselina's punishment was something met with "dead silence outside of the Black community."
After concerned users complained about what they also thought was a drastic measure, Bosselina posted a follow-up video asking her daughter:
“Do you feel like this form of discipline was a lot better than any other form of discipline, like physical abuse, that I could have used?”
The girl muttered, "Yeah."
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
This didn't sit well with viewers since they were convinced the young girl appeared to be bullied into agreeing with her mum.
Bosselina addressed the online condemnation in a third video–which along with the previous two videos has been set to private–that featured her daughter trying on a wig and discussing the controversy.
“Is TikTok OK?” Bosselina asked her daughter while laughing:
“They think you’re some type of like victim or something.”
The girl interjected:
“I’m not.”
The shared video sparked outrage.
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
@alyssaphobium/TikTok
The mom continued in the third video:
“They don’t understand that it’s really this easy to put a wig on.”
The daughter was seen stroking the hair of her new wig, commenting:
“It’s so pretty."
Bosselina added:
“You learnt your lesson, like, the lesson was learnt, no? I warned you even before I put it on TikTok that if you continued with this behaviour–because you like the app so much–that I’m gonna cut your hair off, record it and post it."
“I told you this from three months ago, and I’ve been telling you every week, right?
“So this didn’t come as a real shock to you, you were just shocked that I actually, finally did it, right?”
The daughter was seen nodding in agreement throughout their discussion.
Bosselina minimized the outcry, assuring users that her daughter "wasn't hurt."
She then said, before laughing with her daughter:
“What the hell’s wrong with these people?"
Bosselina addressed the viewers and talked about the importance of education.
"You guys, this is my baby. This is me right here. So yes, she had to learn a hard lesson today because being pretty is not s**t, education comes first."
"Because you can be pretty all you want in life, nobody is going to sit here and love you just because you’re pretty and want to be with you just because you’re pretty, no. You need education.”
“I want her to graduate college, I want her to become something and be something. I own my own business, and this kid is going to have to be able to take part of that business–you can’t do that with no education.“
"So what I’m doing to, and for, my child is [...] instilling strength into my child. My child is not a victim, she does not have a victim mentality [...] my kid is good.”
Bosselina ended her lesson by admitting that part of the problem was how she spoiled her daughter “so much.”
She also said that earlier punishment tactics included taking away her kid's shoes, clothes, and other treats as a way to teach a lesson.
The clip ended with her giving her daughter a big kiss and telling her:
“I love you kid.”