Every Thursday we highlight a problem from a listener. We give our advice and ask other listeners to offer advice. Welcome to the Counseling Corner.

Dear Brain & Courtlin,

I have a few questions in regards to punishing my son and I could use some opinions from other parents. My son is 11-years-old and we bought him an iPad for Christmas this year. Last week he was being incredibly careless and broke it beyond repair. He is obviously not too happy about it and neither are we. My husband and I decided to ground our son for 2 weeks as punishment for being irresponsible. Additionally, we told him we would not be buying him a new one. This upset him even more because he expected us to replace it. iPads are expensive and we don't feel he deserves another one at this time. One of his friend's moms heard what happened and took it upon herself to let us know that they think we are being too harsh and we should “rethink” the punishment because our son might resent us later on. We think the punishment is fair, but now we are wondering how other parents might have handled the situation. Are we being too harsh or is this woman out of line for critiquing our parenting? Some input from other moms and dads would be greatly appreciated.

Casey

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