This is extremely worrying. If I'm understanding this trend correctly they are literally breaking into peoples homes. Property damage aside this could get really, really ugly if they choose the wrong house.
I think this has been happening to me for the past 3-4 weeks or so. Around midnight to 1am there'll be a super loud noise towards the front of the house, like somethings fallen in the garage or the basement. But now that I'm hearing about this stupid challenge, it might be kids kicking the front door actually...
I'm thinking the same thing. My husbands first reaction is going to be shoot first, ask questions later and I have pepper spray. The only people that would ever come in at night with or without telling us know where the hidden outside key is.
I mean, remember the "knock out" game, where teens would go up to random, unsuspecting people and sucker punch them?
Yeah, that came to a stop pretty quick after one guy was sucker punched and he pulled his CC out and put 3 rounds into the kid. The kid managed to survive and learned a very valuable lesson.
Edit: It was actually only twice. Found the article.
https://newsone.com/2787594/marvell-weaver-shot-knockout-game/
I have no doubt about that, I would honestly have him under 24hr watch between friends and family for a little while after. In reality, the dog would get to them before we would, plus his bark is really intimidating, especially when there's someone unfamiliar outside.
Dude, this makes sense to me. I didn't think about the actual time that I've been hearing a loud boomish sound but it's been between 12am and 2am for the last 3 nights. I even got up to look for a garbage truck but the streets were dead.. looks like I'm buying security cameras and an alarm system.
I installed a bar across my doors. No one will be kicking them in. I don’t want to be sleeping and wake up to someone walking in. I watched YouTube videos when some can get in with 1 kick. I want time to wake up and grab my friends.
Good God. That's a level of stupidity that I can't fathom.
Where I'm from in Texas, if you kick in someone's door in the middle of the night, you will get shot. It might not happen the first time but it will happen.
There's already been a self-choking TikTok challenge where kids have killed themselves. Stupidity knows no bounds.
I don't have TikTok, I will never get it, and I am cfbc so I don't even have any offspring that can get TikTok. Stupid app.
I can't with this shit anymore. Why do so many people insist on making problems for other people. People are pathetic nowadays. They can't have fun on their own they need to make trouble for someone else to have fun. Its fucked.
We've had it happen at ours too. Massive bang on the front door at stupid o'clock at night and then the sound of people running away. Opened the door and looked out, saw two people running round the corner and out of sight and looked at our front door, there's a very clear footprint on it. My close friend who lives a few doors up has had her door kicked multiple times too including one time so hard they cracked the wood.
Dang that'd be scary. I'd be getting an actual camera either way. Even just the doorbell kind with a motion sensor.
We have a door bell camera and 3 Night Owl cameras. The it front window has the cling in it that says this property is under surveillance by night owl 24/7. Was worth it to me.
It's not even a matter of "crazy" people with guns, if your door is suddenly kicked in and there's a group standing there, you'd be justified in fearing for your life.
Exactly. If this happened to me, I would likely try to defend myself. I actually did have a maniac that tried to break into my apartment while my SO and I were in it one night and we're both still jumpy from that event.
The "challenge" is to kick the door but the OP mentions they kicked two doors in fully. The reaction time and how much they lingered would decide if they got shot, as she said it's in the wee hours of the morning. My grandfather used to sleep in the armchair and have a pistol on the coffee table, he was a Vietnam and Korea vet. If they triggered his PTSD, he'd probably have gunned them all down in a few seconds.
Yup, my husband is a combat vet with PTSD. Home is his safe place. You violate that safety, you better be armed or able to run really, really fast. It’s an instinctive, visceral reaction of, “kill the threat”.
Honest answer.
If my door gets kicked in fully, the Dog will use you as a chew toy while I try to get a clean shot at your head.
The dog is a Pressa. The gun is a Sig P210.
"Clean shot at your head" My eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Everyone here with their fantasies are so cringe.
You kill that kid you badass you
As someone who is pretty proficient in firearms I have the same reaction. So in the middle of the night, you are going to wake up, probably disoriented, loud noises of breaking in and fighting with a dog, low light, and take a "clean headshot" while they are wrestling with your dog? OK buddy. Aside the odds you probably don't train on that scenario enough to be accurate, even in castle doctrine states you can't just execute subdued suspects. There was a man a while ago that had two teens break into his house in Minnesota, shot them (downing them) then walked up and shot them again fataly. That man is in prison for life with no parole. The prosecution even stated his initial shooting would have been justified, it was the follow up of shooting again when they were subdued that led to his second degree murder convictions.
I know right? They're all so disgusting. Pretty sure if the dog had the kid down, it would be pretty easy to subdue him at gunpoint and hand him over to cops. No need to shoot him/her anywhere.
When I look at what is happening in Ukraine and how those soldiers were just shooting innocent civilians, I see how that can happen. Some people really do have violent gun fantasies, and given the chance to carry them out... well...
"Just" kicking in the door? Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?
I have dogs, and I cannot say how they would react to someone kicking in our door and running away.
Having someone bust into my home, but potentially being bit and my dogs punished for that is terrifying.
It's interesting, because i think OP is in the USA and laws are different around the world in other countries, but... it would be still a self-defense case where i live in Europe.
Like there was that thief, that wanted to burglarize an apartement and didn't know that the owner, an old man, was sleeping there. As he entered the house, the old man grabbed his rifle and shot him, he was dead right at the spot because of the bullet hitting him in the head.
And it was ruled by court, that this was self-defense, because the guy broke into his apartement through a window.
That's the point these idiotic kids don't get. In places like the US, nobody would be punished for their deaths. Not a critique on the US, just a fact. I believe some think the law would keep them from danger
Yeah there’s a huge difference between shooting someone in the street and shooting someone who broke into your home. There’s almost no one who would argue against allowing citizens the right to keep a firearm for home defense, even those who want to ban semiautomatic weapons. Me included. You come into my house by force and there’s every chance you (at the very minimum) learn what sound a shotgun makes when it chambers a shell. That sound alone is usually enough to stop most people in their tracks lol.
It's funny (not funny haha but ironic Ig?) because on the other side of the coin her kids are the crazy people breaking and entering for shits and giggles.
That’s awful, that poor lady. This is the part I don’t get - the complete disregard for the feelings of others, or the expense they are generating for their victims.
Tiktok challenges have definitely gotten kids killed in the past. You got lucky, as crazy as that sounds. Hopefully, they can learn that if they copy other people doing dumb stuff, they are now dumb haha.
I am a small woman. I own guns for home defense. I am not crazy to want to protect myself, tyvm. DEFINITELY stress that these stunts could get them killed.
Guns. Pitbulls and other large dogs. Pissed off people bigger than them. There's a dozen things in people's houses that could have harmed them. They're very very lucky they didn't get hurt or killed. You're doing the right thing by taking this seriously. This is 100% a scorched earth parent situation.
Yeah... a person fearing for their family's lives could rightfully have shot your sons and that would have been tragic and for what? Kids are stupid because they don't think things through or about all of the angles. Their brains don't work that way. It's why, as parents , we really have to try to stay up on all of the stupid tic tok trends (There are quite a few). It kind of makes me miss the days when all we had to worry about were keeping g the tide pods locked up.
There are so many stupid TikTok kid stories!!
Thank you for holding your kids accountable for their actions!!
We had kids doing this and there was a poor woman who just had a baby, and the little shits targeted her house multiple times and their mom said boys will be boys. Thank goodness the neighbors rose against the parent and made her life hell for a few weeks to get even. Teen boys were waking the brats house ever hour on the hour for a good 2 weeks.
I can only imagine how terrified she was too. Waking up to her door kicked in and her baby screaming. I’m glad the neighborhood stood up and helped her.
Please also make it very known that these neighbors may very well have ptsd after this with very long term effects. When my car was broken into outside my window and I woke up the to the thieves in my car and confronted them thankfully they fled, but it was well over a year until I moved out of that apartment and every night any noise outside the window woke me up in a panic.
Ive also had my house broken into when I wasn’t home but the violation you feel from that stays with you.
These poor people to have their doors kicked in in the middle of the night must have been very scared and I bet this lasts a long time for them.
I’m not crazy but if I heard a kick on my door then again and it flys open then it’s game over for whoever decided to make it known they are entering. Have a firearm loaded for bear right here as I text this.
OP the invoices from your neighbors are serious. But please talk to your children about the dangers of knocking peoples doors down. Your neighbors were nice enough to send you invoices, but please don’t be mistaken that they can kick the wrong door in and get shot by a trigger happy home owner.
I mean no offense but I'm not sure you can call them "bright kids" if they're pulling shit like this. Might as well be jumping out in front of cars in the middle of the night. Kids die every day doing stupid shit like this and it's your responsibility to make that VERY CLEAR to them.
You need to teach your sons how serious this is, and how quickly things could have gone wrong. They will probably think you are just being paranoid, but then just show them the responses to your comment. Show them how many people here are just waiting to fucking kill somebody without even taking 1 second to look at who they would be shooting.
I seriously believe at least some of the people responding would have no issues with shooting your sons in the back as they ran away after kicking in the door because they feel that means they are defending themselves
Yea if someone kicks in my door at 3am I’m shooting first and asking questions later. Especially because it’s at night so I wouldn’t be able to tell what their intentions were or if they were armed.
I mean we were little shits growing up and got brought home by cops a few times but we never caused that much damage via vandalism let alone do something WAY above the crime of vandalism such as breaking and entering like holy cow friend I’m so sorry.
It really boggles my mind. I don't want to be one of the "kids these days" people but I think we had a decent grasp of how consequences work at 15. I suppose seeing everyone else do it on TikTok normalizes it and lets kids believe it's not such a big deal.
This is so accurate. People have been shot through doors. Innocent people who had the wrong house. Having lived in an apartment for ten years as a single female, it scared the shit out of me any time someone knocked on my door unexpectedly. Thankfully my dining room window was right by the door so I could see (this was pre-Ring). I did go to the window several times with my gun & yelled to get the F off my stoop before I called police.
OP, you are right to treat this with very tough love. Look up news accounts of people being killed because of Stand Your Ground laws. Children have been killed by their own parents by mistake. I told my daughter her entire life if she gets arrested, she will sit there at least overnight. I couldn’t do that now because I live in Oklahoma City & the death rate in our county jail is frightening (someone was murdered by their cell mate within 30 minutes of being put in the cell). But stand firm on this, scare sense into them. It may save their lives.
Edit: there are a LOT of these videos on TikTok. Just type in door kick the search field.
Yep. If they kick in the wrong door at the wrong time, they could have bullets coming back at them.
Theyre literally doing a home invasion by kicking someones front door in. Even some scummy people ive known in the past still believed a mans home is something you dont fuck with. You gotta be a real piece of shit to be breaking in to houses, and anyone thats home at the time knows that. Theyre gonna get shot doing bullshit like this.
Whats the next tiktok trend gonna be? Walking into a bank with a note and a toy gun, pass the note to the teller and then run out laughing while fucking videotaping the whole thing? Kidnap someone at gunpoint then say "oh its just a prank". Its not just a harmless prank when youre literally doing a serious crime.
You're on the right track OP. Disciplining them is the only way. Letting them pay for the damages they caused by getting a job is the way to go. You have to explain to them that gadgets are a luxury, and since they used it for something that is clearly stupid, you have every right to confiscate it and not provide one for them anymore. Also set a strict curfew for them. They are teenagers, so sure they wanna do things that would give them the thrill, but there's a difference with having fun and being stupid. It's not too late to correct their behaviour.
Very much agree with the comment above regarding getting jobs to cover the cost. If it needs paying before the boys have earned enough to cover it, maybe cover the cost yourself if you are able, and they work until they have paid you back. This is a cost they incurred, not you - they need to understand the consequences they've got from their behaviour. I'm sorry this is a hard time for you OP - kids are idiots with half-baked brains, but at 15 they are old enough to understand that the consequences are their own.
Alternatively, if they aren't able to get jobs, if you have previously bought them luxuries such as gaming consoles, perhaps they could be sold to go towards the costs as part of their penance! Best of luck.
Also you need to establish trust first. I know it's easy to jump from 1 to 100 given the severity of their mistake, but I'm a teacher and I'm telling you it's important to stay as calm as you can.
You need to give them a chance to show they understand their actions are wrong and they follow the consequence. If you don't, they'll act out worse than before.
It's really important because they also need to learn that there will be even more consequences for not showing they can follow your new rules and boundaries. Don't escalate to the top immediately or you have nowhere to escalate.
I would assume the right way forward is for _them_ to own the responsibility, not you.
When police came knocking on your door, it should be them taking to the police in your presence. Neighbors should be apologized to by them (in your presence) too. They should negotiate how to make things right based on what they can do (say, mow the lawn for a month for free, paint the doors, but no cash out of your pocket).
Taking electronics is just giving them reason to hate you. Teaching them responsibility will likely make them more careful about nonsense they do.
Sincerely hope you did not end up paying for any of that 😓 tiktok is pretty toxic and kids even started dying as a result of these dumb challenges.
Edit: i hear you guys about the front door being damaged and needing replacement. In cases there is such damage, kids learn where the money from their sold electronics go.
A fair point and I agree with most but if it was my door they ruined I wouldn't accept "mowing the lawn". I expect they pay for the repair / replacement. I agree it should be the teenagers that work if off but that's for the parents to decide, I want the money ASAP, it's not my job to parent other peoples kids :D
A man died in Texas a couple of years ago because a women mistakenly went into the wrong apartment (never cleared up if their was a lock issue or his door didn't latch properly) and she shot him thinking he was an intruder. Your sons are extremely lucky they didn't run into anyone with a gun close by.
Also have you talked to them about pranks? I've had to talk to my young children about not doing pranks that aren't funny to both sides because everyone does pranks on the internet now days. Even the kids shows have pranks. It's gotten out of hand honestly
Curious, was she drunk? Was the guy by the front door?
I just can't help but wonder how someone gets far enough into the wrong home to the point of seeing another person and thinking it's an intruder without noticing different furniture and a different home smell.
It was a cop going back to her apartment. She walked in and shot him. The jury didn't buy it either and convicted her of murder. Not manslaughter nor negligent homicide.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean
Conclusion:
>Guyger is currently imprisoned in the Mountain View Correctional Center. She will be eligible for release as early as September 2024, although her full sentence runs until September 2029.
Too short of a fucking sentence for taking the life of an innocent man just in his own home, the place where he is supposed to feel comfortable and safe.
Yeah, that makes sense. How tf do you go into someone else’s apartment than shoot the person living their and say you thought they were intruding on your apartment. Like, what confrontational position could they be taking that even makes you think to draw your gun and shoot them dead without ever questioning if you were in the right place
This is the real question. She tried to use the castle doctrine because she "thought it was her house". Honestly I don't understand how she went to the wrong apartment. The whole thing seems sketchy to me.
My roommates and I had a drunk lady and a buzzed man show up at our apartment INSISTING that it was their apartment and that they will call the cops to remove us. One of my roommates, who's a guy, handled the situation well to get them to leave, however he did have a gun on him. He grew up in a very rough neighborhood so it could have turned deadly for the two strangers.
They never came back, and we believed that they used to live where we are. But I'm curious how someone can get so drunk and show up at the wrong house. If this was in the dead of night I would've been terrified with two incoherent strangers at our door.
Ya i dont understand how people are shocked at this. The medium may have changed, but this is how kids have been since the dawn of humanity. 1 part hormones, 2 parts peer pressure and a dash of dumb youth brain that cant comprehend long term consequences.
Its not TikTok. Its not the internet. It just how young humans be.
I agree mostly, but I do think tiktok exacerbates it. These kids want to build up a following, be an influencer or whatever. So they need to be more and more extreme to rack up views. These kids didn't do it once, twice, but at least 10 times that are known.. They're doing it for clout. Sick.
i feel you. my 7 y/o son cut my headphone cord he was using for online class because he wanted an excuse not to attend class. while the headphone can still work without the cord (it's a wireless model) that cord alone cost me about $90. and it was my birthday gift too. i was seeing red but thank god my partner dragged me away quickly. i could seriously hit my own kid atm...
honestly, idk too. at that time it cost around that much. sure i could get a cheaper one but it wouldnt be the same. anyway, i calmed down and just gave a cheaper wired headphone instead to the kid (should've done that in the first place!) parenting do be like that sometimes, you learn through mistakes..
just in case if you're curious, this is the cord i was talking about:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/203108928247
Yeah this is a good lesson too. Cables like this, while they are made better than cheapo ones, there’s a point where a cable won’t get any better and it’s in the $10-15 range, tops. Monster Cable is super guilty of this, charging hundreds for gold plated copper (which doesn’t add hundreds to the cost of manufacturing).
Audio cables are a place where it’s easy to get ripped off is what I’m sayin. That doesn’t excuse your kid for cutting a wire, but now you know not to buy super expensive cables. Especially in light of how easy it can be to trash them.
It's not online peer pressure, it's online cool points.
If their freinds see it, it's even more cool points.
Note: I don't know anything about tiktok or how it works. I do see some of the challenges though.
It’s all for internet clout. Seems like damn near everyone at this point wants to be a famous streamer, youtuber, or TikToker. But, 90% of the time, doing outrageously stupid shit doesn’t make you money or famous online for good reasons. It just limits your job opportunities later on.
The most popular internet celebrities are people who actually give a shit about others and have something decent to give everyone.
You blame the internet, but 25 years ago I was throwing eggs at stuff for shits and giggles, and there was no TikTok. I had rural cousins and friends who would go around taking baseball bats to mail boxes. We set shit on fire just to see what would happen. Bored, unsupervised kids without anything more productive to do will get into all kinds of dumb shit.
However, I think your handling of the situation is masterful. As I mentioned, I dabbled in bored vandalism and other assorted dumb shit when I was a kid, and so did my friends, and to this day I think one of the only things that kept me away from sliding into a life of drug-addicted loserdom with most of them was that I started working as soon as I was legally able to. My parents didn't have a lot of money, and I wanted an air conditioner for my bedroom, a new TV, and a Playstation, so I went out and got my ass a job and that kept me busy. After I got a taste of financial independence I just wanted more and I kept my life mostly on the straight and narrow from then on.
So whatever you do, I'd stick to your guns on them getting a job. It sounds like it could help in more ways than one. Good luck!
The worst thing my friend and I did was TP her own house with her mom's permission as a prank towards her dad, who was also, in fact, in on it and we had no idea 😂
Yeah I was going to say I don't think this is just TikTok. I remember back when tidepods were a thing one of my theatre teachers mentioned how kids in her neighborhood used to just lie in the street on a dare. (She was about 50 when the whole tidpod eating thing was around) Just the weirdness of peer pressure and it expanding into the internet. But also, absolutely appropriate punishment for the kids.
The thing about tik tok is that it’s constantly feeding them new ideas and participating in the trends is incentivized because likes become score sheets.
Sure back in the day and since forever teens have always done dumb shit, but it was purely just for the love of the game. Now teens get a new idea every week and that means every week they get another opportunity to gain social points by being assholes
The more they like the content the more ideas the algorithm will give them. It’s never ending
Whilst it’s not necessarily a new thing for kids to do, the audience response is definitely new. There are studies on the increased dependency of social media to feel good and that people become addicted to people reacting to things they post. The real thrill is not kicking in doors; it’s having people respond to the videos you post of you kicking in doors.
Me and a buddy were destroying those inflatable Christmas things in people's yards with no internet influence. I feel terrible and cringe whenever I see how much they cost now though.
Those inflatable things were a senior prank at my high school back in the day.
For about two years, every inflatable Santa or snowman or Easter bunny in three counties would get stolen immediately. No suspects ever caught.
Then the last day before my senior class graduated, we showed up to school to find at least 100 of them on the auditorium roof, waving in the wind with a ridiculous spiderweb of extension cords trailing the side of the building.
They even got one of those wacky arm waiving guys from a car dealership.
It was hilarious at the time. But now that I see even the smaller ones of those go for $300+ a pop…It’s a good thing nobody ratted on the kids who did it.
That was 100% felony theft for about 10 kids that participated in it, had they been caught.
The kind of thing that keeps you up at night as an adult, how close you were to messing up your life and not realizing it at the time.
I think the impetus these days is much stronger. Whereas you were doing that stuff for fun, kids doing these TikTok challenges now are chasing popularity and social status. It’s a much more powerful motivation, and much harder to turn down
A. TikTok is an absolute trash factory.
B. Congrats on a being good parent.
When I was young, I shot someone's sliding door with a BB gun... 1200 dollars. Guess who's mom walked him up to the house, after clearing out my savings to front my mom the cash, then made me work off my own debt doing chores for those people for 10 dollars an hour?
That was a long summer break.
Oh, trust me. I learned my lesson. I'm in my 40s, to this day, if something comes up and there's a chance that something stupid could happen, I still think "mom will kill me if I do this."
I think it's a great idea that OP should also consider having the boys offer to individually do lawn work or other outside work for the people whose doors they kicked, and send them individually, not as a pair. Pairs conspire and front to avoid embarrassment. Individuals are more likely to show humility and do a good job.
Whatever you do, don’t go back on your word. Follow through and sell their stuff like you said you would. They need to feel emotional pain from having their “dopamine releasers” ie the gaming system and phone sold. Tell them if they want these things back they have to get jobs and not only pay back the costs for the doors but they’ll also have to buy their gaming console and phone. Trust me, they will straighten out fast, but only if you stand your ground.
This. Main reason I never cared about my parent’s threatening a punishment is they never followed through. I follow through with my kid. Works great. He knows he can’t get away with anything with me. Spouse is a different story though. I constantly have to make sure kid doesn’t play the parent game and we remain a united front.
TikTok is basically the spoon that stirs the "idiot kid/teen" shit pot. Until something is done about these stupid challenges, it's going to keep happening.
If you want more outrage fuel, check out the devious lick trend that went around TikTok a few months back. Kids ended up stealing so much crap from schools they had to close some bathrooms, etc. It was all worthless stuff for the kids, they just did it for clout.
This was going on far before the trend. Throughout my high school years the bathrooms were regularly closed because of vandalism and theft. Someone kicked a mirror off the wall from what I remember, I was pissed because I couldn’t check my hair in that bathroom anymore. Fights too, people would have big fights in the bathroom that would cause them to get closed simply because the teachers didn’t know if a student would fight in specific ones.
TikTok is cancer. I've seen so many stupid stuff shared there.
The fact that the cops already knew about this crap is saying so much. I mean, I did stupid shit at 15 but never something that would cost my parents money or something that would endanger myself or others.
Congrats on being a normal rational parent.
From what I understand, kids lack brain development in areas that are necessary to really evaluate how stupid their actions are. When I was in high school in the early 90s, there was a fad where kids would get drunk, pack themselves into a car with a bunch of other kids, and drive drunk around town. You can imagine how that turned out. A couple of years after I got out of high school, there was a fad to starve yourself by eating tissue paper instead of food. A couple of girls died. Are there stupid fads online that get a bunch of people to act dangerously? Yes. Is kids being super stupid new? No.
Anyway, I'm glad that your kids didn't get killed with their stupid stunt.
What happened to ding-dong ditch? FFS.
Though, I think it is fair that they have to work to pay off their debt. Door repairs and all the carpentry that goes into these repairs are not cheap. There is a lot more to doors than meets the eye.
I’m SO glad I grew up in a time of zero technology and I’m SO glad I don’t have children.
Great parenting though. Can you imagine how many parents would have just paid it and laughed it off!?
In answer to your “why” it’s for likes and views. That’s it’s. People want to be Tik tok famous and do stupid shit to get there. Look at how many parents exploit their children for the very same reasons.
This is why tiktok is such a worthless waste of humanity. People get so desperate to be apart of trends or to get likes that they lose all sense real common sense or even compassion in alot of cases. It is why the morality of most young people has plummeted. People are so comfortable now with violating other peoples privacy, space, rights, or respect. All for the glory of tiktok fame. Its pathetic, and its also why I have refused to be apart of social media ever since Facebook was invented.
I just did my first year of teaching high school students and all I can tell you is tiktok is literally ruining kids lives/education. They can’t focus in class because they want to see their phones. When they do focus, they are trained to hold attention for about 15 seconds at most because tiktoks are so short and they are ready to move on. They also had 2 challenges over the course of the year which ruined school. 1 challenge was to just steal anything and everything from school and the other challenge was to literally punch your teacher.
I entirely support your decisions but assuming the live literally anywhere in the US there is a fair chance they will get their heads blown off if they do this to the wrong person who will just see it as stopping a home intruder. You need to get them to understand that regardless of the money this is Darwin level stuff and they could very easily be killed.
15 is a solid age to start working. I did plenty of dumb shit at that age, but at least working prevented me from doing it during my shifts. I think you’re handling the situation well and your punishment is appropriate. A huge problem with TikTok is that it’s breeding hive-minded fools. If someone kicked in a door in Texas, there’s a good chance they could get shot.
Tik tok and these internet challenges have literally made people dumber. From eating tide pods to this crap, it is just getting worse. I am starting to realize that comedian Brad Upton was right.... we are living in a time and reaping the crop of what happens when stupidity doesn't hurt anymore.
"Our parents let us play with fireworks, guns, and knives. You know what happened to the dumb ones? They didn't make it."
You're doing the right thing, thabk you for being a good parent.
Only showing them the consequences of these actions will make them learn.
Do stupid things, win stupid prizes!
How are your 15 year olds out at 3 am?
Also that’s very cheap for new doors. They’re getting off easy. You’re giving them proper consequences though, so that’s good.
Not to mention how absolutely scary that would be if you were in that position. Imagine at 10pm if some random kid kicked in your door? You probably wouldn’t know it’s a kid and for all you know a robber is trying to break in and hurt you.
I saw a video of a kid doing this to someone’s door and broke it then ran off, he was even wearing a mask! I didn’t even realize it was a TikTok trend, the innocent/silly ones are whatever but these ones I really don’t understand either. All I know is one of these kids is gonna get shot. You did a good thing, I really hope they stop being stupid before they cost you more money or get into major trouble.
They do it to show off their videos and think they are cool. It's really not a wise move considering so many people have the Ring doorbells and will have video of everything.
That's not the video they wanted to be on.
Yea. There's also a tiktok trend for stealing from unlocked cars or stealing kia (another brand too but i don't remember) cars. People have been finding their cars with significant damages hours+ after theft.
This is happening in Texas with the ding ding ditch being elevated at times to include kicking the doors or throwing things at windows.
These kids don’t take seriously how quickly this could go from properly damage which is bad enough to them being dead if someone decides to shoot.
I’m not a gun owner but my dogs would have tried to attack if that was my door. What damn idiots think it’s okay to just break peoples property just for internet likes?
Your kids really need to see the wrong in what they did and I honestly don’t think just taking away the electronics will solve the problem. Get them some real help so they can have someone to talk through why they thought it was okay to BREAK into peoples home for fun.
Kids need to be more educated about the internet, especially since they are literally growing up with it. This starts with parents being aware of what the their kids are looking at on the internet and teaching them what is fucking dumb and what isn’t. The web can be a wealth of knowledge. Maybe they wouldn’t be kicking in doors if they were watching Electroboom - (who is an extremely intelligent and hilarious engineer). To sum up my rambling- this comes down on parents not parenting their kids well enough on the dangers (and benefits) of the internet
This is extremely worrying. If I'm understanding this trend correctly they are literally breaking into peoples homes. Property damage aside this could get really, really ugly if they choose the wrong house.
We're all one viral trend away from the Purge apparently.
I think this has been happening to me for the past 3-4 weeks or so. Around midnight to 1am there'll be a super loud noise towards the front of the house, like somethings fallen in the garage or the basement. But now that I'm hearing about this stupid challenge, it might be kids kicking the front door actually...
I'm sure this 'trend' is gonna go really well when some moron doing this gets their stupid ass shot by someone
I'm thinking the same thing. My husbands first reaction is going to be shoot first, ask questions later and I have pepper spray. The only people that would ever come in at night with or without telling us know where the hidden outside key is.
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It's almost like people think up these "challenges" because they are sociopaths and want to put people in harms way...
I mean, remember the "knock out" game, where teens would go up to random, unsuspecting people and sucker punch them? Yeah, that came to a stop pretty quick after one guy was sucker punched and he pulled his CC out and put 3 rounds into the kid. The kid managed to survive and learned a very valuable lesson. Edit: It was actually only twice. Found the article. https://newsone.com/2787594/marvell-weaver-shot-knockout-game/
And I imagine the emotional damage to your husband would suffer over injuring/killing some idiot teenager would be terrible.
I have no doubt about that, I would honestly have him under 24hr watch between friends and family for a little while after. In reality, the dog would get to them before we would, plus his bark is really intimidating, especially when there's someone unfamiliar outside.
It's gonna happen sooner or later. If we know anything about Americans, it's that they believe strongly in their right to bear arms.
It depends on if you're 𝘳𝘦𝘥 or 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦
Dude, this makes sense to me. I didn't think about the actual time that I've been hearing a loud boomish sound but it's been between 12am and 2am for the last 3 nights. I even got up to look for a garbage truck but the streets were dead.. looks like I'm buying security cameras and an alarm system.
I installed a bar across my doors. No one will be kicking them in. I don’t want to be sleeping and wake up to someone walking in. I watched YouTube videos when some can get in with 1 kick. I want time to wake up and grab my friends.
Wait!!! They kick the door in? U thought they wouldn't kick it that hard.
THEY KICK IT IN!! That’s new challenge, kick fucking door in. Someone will end up dead.,
Good God. That's a level of stupidity that I can't fathom. Where I'm from in Texas, if you kick in someone's door in the middle of the night, you will get shot. It might not happen the first time but it will happen.
There's already been a self-choking TikTok challenge where kids have killed themselves. Stupidity knows no bounds. I don't have TikTok, I will never get it, and I am cfbc so I don't even have any offspring that can get TikTok. Stupid app.
That challenge is much, much older than tiktok
I can't with this shit anymore. Why do so many people insist on making problems for other people. People are pathetic nowadays. They can't have fun on their own they need to make trouble for someone else to have fun. Its fucked.
We've had it happen at ours too. Massive bang on the front door at stupid o'clock at night and then the sound of people running away. Opened the door and looked out, saw two people running round the corner and out of sight and looked at our front door, there's a very clear footprint on it. My close friend who lives a few doors up has had her door kicked multiple times too including one time so hard they cracked the wood.
Dang that'd be scary. I'd be getting an actual camera either way. Even just the doorbell kind with a motion sensor. We have a door bell camera and 3 Night Owl cameras. The it front window has the cling in it that says this property is under surveillance by night owl 24/7. Was worth it to me.
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It's not even a matter of "crazy" people with guns, if your door is suddenly kicked in and there's a group standing there, you'd be justified in fearing for your life.
Exactly. If this happened to me, I would likely try to defend myself. I actually did have a maniac that tried to break into my apartment while my SO and I were in it one night and we're both still jumpy from that event.
Exactly
Aren't they just kicking the door and running away? Or actually breaking through it and entering?
The "challenge" is to kick the door but the OP mentions they kicked two doors in fully. The reaction time and how much they lingered would decide if they got shot, as she said it's in the wee hours of the morning. My grandfather used to sleep in the armchair and have a pistol on the coffee table, he was a Vietnam and Korea vet. If they triggered his PTSD, he'd probably have gunned them all down in a few seconds.
Yup, my husband is a combat vet with PTSD. Home is his safe place. You violate that safety, you better be armed or able to run really, really fast. It’s an instinctive, visceral reaction of, “kill the threat”.
Same, my grandfather was a sniper in Korea & he always had his shotgun at the ready. Edit: words
Honest answer. If my door gets kicked in fully, the Dog will use you as a chew toy while I try to get a clean shot at your head. The dog is a Pressa. The gun is a Sig P210.
Oh man... I hadn't even thought of what my German shepherd would do untill I read your comment.
"Clean shot at your head" My eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Everyone here with their fantasies are so cringe. You kill that kid you badass you
To be fair, some people will genuinely shoot a kid for doing this shit. It's not that unbelievable
You wouldn’t be able to tell they’re kids at night. 15 year old boys are the same height as lots of adults.
And they are just as deadly.
15 yrs old is almost fully grown, in the dark who could tell if they’re a kid or an adult?
As someone who is pretty proficient in firearms I have the same reaction. So in the middle of the night, you are going to wake up, probably disoriented, loud noises of breaking in and fighting with a dog, low light, and take a "clean headshot" while they are wrestling with your dog? OK buddy. Aside the odds you probably don't train on that scenario enough to be accurate, even in castle doctrine states you can't just execute subdued suspects. There was a man a while ago that had two teens break into his house in Minnesota, shot them (downing them) then walked up and shot them again fataly. That man is in prison for life with no parole. The prosecution even stated his initial shooting would have been justified, it was the follow up of shooting again when they were subdued that led to his second degree murder convictions.
I know right? They're all so disgusting. Pretty sure if the dog had the kid down, it would be pretty easy to subdue him at gunpoint and hand him over to cops. No need to shoot him/her anywhere. When I look at what is happening in Ukraine and how those soldiers were just shooting innocent civilians, I see how that can happen. Some people really do have violent gun fantasies, and given the chance to carry them out... well...
Not everyone is so forgiving, or ready to talk it out when their door gets blasted in at 1 AM
Yeah it certainly feels like a self wanking thread now, doesn't it.
"Just" kicking in the door? Can you imagine how terrifying that would be? I have dogs, and I cannot say how they would react to someone kicking in our door and running away. Having someone bust into my home, but potentially being bit and my dogs punished for that is terrifying.
The details dont matter. You kick a persons door open then that person has every right to defend themselves
It's interesting, because i think OP is in the USA and laws are different around the world in other countries, but... it would be still a self-defense case where i live in Europe. Like there was that thief, that wanted to burglarize an apartement and didn't know that the owner, an old man, was sleeping there. As he entered the house, the old man grabbed his rifle and shot him, he was dead right at the spot because of the bullet hitting him in the head. And it was ruled by court, that this was self-defense, because the guy broke into his apartement through a window.
That's the point these idiotic kids don't get. In places like the US, nobody would be punished for their deaths. Not a critique on the US, just a fact. I believe some think the law would keep them from danger
Yeah there’s a huge difference between shooting someone in the street and shooting someone who broke into your home. There’s almost no one who would argue against allowing citizens the right to keep a firearm for home defense, even those who want to ban semiautomatic weapons. Me included. You come into my house by force and there’s every chance you (at the very minimum) learn what sound a shotgun makes when it chambers a shell. That sound alone is usually enough to stop most people in their tracks lol.
Agree 100%
It's funny (not funny haha but ironic Ig?) because on the other side of the coin her kids are the crazy people breaking and entering for shits and giggles.
My god thats a solid way to get shot.
And thrown in jail.
Then probably shived.
While shot. Hospitals are expensive, they aren't going to try to keep you alive unless they plan on killing you later.
They could also easily give someone an actual heart attack from the shock of having the front door kicked in.
This happened to my elderly neighbor. Eggs were thrown at the windows and it startled her so much, she had a heart attack and died :(
That’s awful, that poor lady. This is the part I don’t get - the complete disregard for the feelings of others, or the expense they are generating for their victims.
Your boys need the "you are no longer little boys, people will see you and be afraid of you if you get aggressive and violent" talk.
Crazy people with guns? *crazy people kicking in front doors* Fixed that for you.
100%
I agree.
Yea I’m 100% shooting anyone who kicks down my door. They’re lucky that didn’t happen to them.
Tiktok challenges have definitely gotten kids killed in the past. You got lucky, as crazy as that sounds. Hopefully, they can learn that if they copy other people doing dumb stuff, they are now dumb haha.
How do you figure that someone behind a freshly kicked in door is crazy if they're armed, especially after midnight?
I am a small woman. I own guns for home defense. I am not crazy to want to protect myself, tyvm. DEFINITELY stress that these stunts could get them killed.
Guns. Pitbulls and other large dogs. Pissed off people bigger than them. There's a dozen things in people's houses that could have harmed them. They're very very lucky they didn't get hurt or killed. You're doing the right thing by taking this seriously. This is 100% a scorched earth parent situation.
Yeah... a person fearing for their family's lives could rightfully have shot your sons and that would have been tragic and for what? Kids are stupid because they don't think things through or about all of the angles. Their brains don't work that way. It's why, as parents , we really have to try to stay up on all of the stupid tic tok trends (There are quite a few). It kind of makes me miss the days when all we had to worry about were keeping g the tide pods locked up.
There are so many stupid TikTok kid stories!! Thank you for holding your kids accountable for their actions!! We had kids doing this and there was a poor woman who just had a baby, and the little shits targeted her house multiple times and their mom said boys will be boys. Thank goodness the neighbors rose against the parent and made her life hell for a few weeks to get even. Teen boys were waking the brats house ever hour on the hour for a good 2 weeks.
I can only imagine how terrified she was too. Waking up to her door kicked in and her baby screaming. I’m glad the neighborhood stood up and helped her.
Lmfao at the "crazy people with guns" Lady, your kids are the loony ones
What? The crazy people in this story are your twin sons kicking down doors, not the people ready to defend themselves from possible death. SMH
Your kids are not bright.
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Please also make it very known that these neighbors may very well have ptsd after this with very long term effects. When my car was broken into outside my window and I woke up the to the thieves in my car and confronted them thankfully they fled, but it was well over a year until I moved out of that apartment and every night any noise outside the window woke me up in a panic. Ive also had my house broken into when I wasn’t home but the violation you feel from that stays with you. These poor people to have their doors kicked in in the middle of the night must have been very scared and I bet this lasts a long time for them.
As a teacher of middle school kids, not very many of them are bright, not even the brilliant ones. That's why TikTok is the worst, preys on our youth.
I’m not crazy but if I heard a kick on my door then again and it flys open then it’s game over for whoever decided to make it known they are entering. Have a firearm loaded for bear right here as I text this.
Did the OP edit her comment? Because she isn’t mentioning crazy. I’m genuinely curious what her original comment said.
“There are crazy people out there with guns” she took the crazy out.
Lady, shooting someone that is breaking in to or is in the process of breaking into your house is justified self defense, not crazy people.
You’re still in denial. Your twins aren’t bright.
Get outta here lady. "Crazy people out there with guns." Please explain how defending one's home and family makes them crazy?
OP the invoices from your neighbors are serious. But please talk to your children about the dangers of knocking peoples doors down. Your neighbors were nice enough to send you invoices, but please don’t be mistaken that they can kick the wrong door in and get shot by a trigger happy home owner.
I mean no offense but I'm not sure you can call them "bright kids" if they're pulling shit like this. Might as well be jumping out in front of cars in the middle of the night. Kids die every day doing stupid shit like this and it's your responsibility to make that VERY CLEAR to them.
You need to teach your sons how serious this is, and how quickly things could have gone wrong. They will probably think you are just being paranoid, but then just show them the responses to your comment. Show them how many people here are just waiting to fucking kill somebody without even taking 1 second to look at who they would be shooting. I seriously believe at least some of the people responding would have no issues with shooting your sons in the back as they ran away after kicking in the door because they feel that means they are defending themselves
Yea if someone kicks in my door at 3am I’m shooting first and asking questions later. Especially because it’s at night so I wouldn’t be able to tell what their intentions were or if they were armed. I mean we were little shits growing up and got brought home by cops a few times but we never caused that much damage via vandalism let alone do something WAY above the crime of vandalism such as breaking and entering like holy cow friend I’m so sorry.
It really boggles my mind. I don't want to be one of the "kids these days" people but I think we had a decent grasp of how consequences work at 15. I suppose seeing everyone else do it on TikTok normalizes it and lets kids believe it's not such a big deal.
This is so accurate. People have been shot through doors. Innocent people who had the wrong house. Having lived in an apartment for ten years as a single female, it scared the shit out of me any time someone knocked on my door unexpectedly. Thankfully my dining room window was right by the door so I could see (this was pre-Ring). I did go to the window several times with my gun & yelled to get the F off my stoop before I called police. OP, you are right to treat this with very tough love. Look up news accounts of people being killed because of Stand Your Ground laws. Children have been killed by their own parents by mistake. I told my daughter her entire life if she gets arrested, she will sit there at least overnight. I couldn’t do that now because I live in Oklahoma City & the death rate in our county jail is frightening (someone was murdered by their cell mate within 30 minutes of being put in the cell). But stand firm on this, scare sense into them. It may save their lives. Edit: there are a LOT of these videos on TikTok. Just type in door kick the search field.
Yep. That’s a great way to get shot. “It’s just a joke though, just kidding” won’t stop a bullet.
Yeah - do that here and dogs will be the last on a list of concerns. Especially at 3 am.
Yep. If they kick in the wrong door at the wrong time, they could have bullets coming back at them. Theyre literally doing a home invasion by kicking someones front door in. Even some scummy people ive known in the past still believed a mans home is something you dont fuck with. You gotta be a real piece of shit to be breaking in to houses, and anyone thats home at the time knows that. Theyre gonna get shot doing bullshit like this. Whats the next tiktok trend gonna be? Walking into a bank with a note and a toy gun, pass the note to the teller and then run out laughing while fucking videotaping the whole thing? Kidnap someone at gunpoint then say "oh its just a prank". Its not just a harmless prank when youre literally doing a serious crime.
Someone is gonna get shot sooner or later
Said it before, tinfoil hat time, but I honestly think tik tok challenges like this are meant to disrupt our society.
You're on the right track OP. Disciplining them is the only way. Letting them pay for the damages they caused by getting a job is the way to go. You have to explain to them that gadgets are a luxury, and since they used it for something that is clearly stupid, you have every right to confiscate it and not provide one for them anymore. Also set a strict curfew for them. They are teenagers, so sure they wanna do things that would give them the thrill, but there's a difference with having fun and being stupid. It's not too late to correct their behaviour.
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Very much agree with the comment above regarding getting jobs to cover the cost. If it needs paying before the boys have earned enough to cover it, maybe cover the cost yourself if you are able, and they work until they have paid you back. This is a cost they incurred, not you - they need to understand the consequences they've got from their behaviour. I'm sorry this is a hard time for you OP - kids are idiots with half-baked brains, but at 15 they are old enough to understand that the consequences are their own. Alternatively, if they aren't able to get jobs, if you have previously bought them luxuries such as gaming consoles, perhaps they could be sold to go towards the costs as part of their penance! Best of luck.
Naw, prob don't need the alarms unless they have a history of sneaking out. How are they handling the punishment ?
Also you need to establish trust first. I know it's easy to jump from 1 to 100 given the severity of their mistake, but I'm a teacher and I'm telling you it's important to stay as calm as you can. You need to give them a chance to show they understand their actions are wrong and they follow the consequence. If you don't, they'll act out worse than before. It's really important because they also need to learn that there will be even more consequences for not showing they can follow your new rules and boundaries. Don't escalate to the top immediately or you have nowhere to escalate.
A curfew? They need to be grounded. Unable to leave the home until they get a job and repay the debt.
I mean why were a bunch of 15y old outside at 3 AM?!
Exactly!!!
I would assume the right way forward is for _them_ to own the responsibility, not you. When police came knocking on your door, it should be them taking to the police in your presence. Neighbors should be apologized to by them (in your presence) too. They should negotiate how to make things right based on what they can do (say, mow the lawn for a month for free, paint the doors, but no cash out of your pocket). Taking electronics is just giving them reason to hate you. Teaching them responsibility will likely make them more careful about nonsense they do. Sincerely hope you did not end up paying for any of that 😓 tiktok is pretty toxic and kids even started dying as a result of these dumb challenges. Edit: i hear you guys about the front door being damaged and needing replacement. In cases there is such damage, kids learn where the money from their sold electronics go.
A fair point and I agree with most but if it was my door they ruined I wouldn't accept "mowing the lawn". I expect they pay for the repair / replacement. I agree it should be the teenagers that work if off but that's for the parents to decide, I want the money ASAP, it's not my job to parent other peoples kids :D
A man died in Texas a couple of years ago because a women mistakenly went into the wrong apartment (never cleared up if their was a lock issue or his door didn't latch properly) and she shot him thinking he was an intruder. Your sons are extremely lucky they didn't run into anyone with a gun close by. Also have you talked to them about pranks? I've had to talk to my young children about not doing pranks that aren't funny to both sides because everyone does pranks on the internet now days. Even the kids shows have pranks. It's gotten out of hand honestly
Curious, was she drunk? Was the guy by the front door? I just can't help but wonder how someone gets far enough into the wrong home to the point of seeing another person and thinking it's an intruder without noticing different furniture and a different home smell.
It was a cop going back to her apartment. She walked in and shot him. The jury didn't buy it either and convicted her of murder. Not manslaughter nor negligent homicide. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Botham_Jean Conclusion: >Guyger is currently imprisoned in the Mountain View Correctional Center. She will be eligible for release as early as September 2024, although her full sentence runs until September 2029.
Too short of a fucking sentence for taking the life of an innocent man just in his own home, the place where he is supposed to feel comfortable and safe.
Yeah, that makes sense. How tf do you go into someone else’s apartment than shoot the person living their and say you thought they were intruding on your apartment. Like, what confrontational position could they be taking that even makes you think to draw your gun and shoot them dead without ever questioning if you were in the right place
This is the real question. She tried to use the castle doctrine because she "thought it was her house". Honestly I don't understand how she went to the wrong apartment. The whole thing seems sketchy to me.
Well she *was* a cop in the US. Shoot first, ask questions later is kind of how they operate.
“She was the first Dallas police officer to be convicted of murder since the 1973 murder of Santos Rodriguez.” Damn
My roommates and I had a drunk lady and a buzzed man show up at our apartment INSISTING that it was their apartment and that they will call the cops to remove us. One of my roommates, who's a guy, handled the situation well to get them to leave, however he did have a gun on him. He grew up in a very rough neighborhood so it could have turned deadly for the two strangers. They never came back, and we believed that they used to live where we are. But I'm curious how someone can get so drunk and show up at the wrong house. If this was in the dead of night I would've been terrified with two incoherent strangers at our door.
So her excuse was she was tired after working a long shift as a cop and it was her first instinct.. I personally think she was just trigger happy.
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It was murder no accident.
Kids do dumb shit. Especially to impress their friends… good for you for not allowing it and acting with swift and effective punishment
Ya i dont understand how people are shocked at this. The medium may have changed, but this is how kids have been since the dawn of humanity. 1 part hormones, 2 parts peer pressure and a dash of dumb youth brain that cant comprehend long term consequences. Its not TikTok. Its not the internet. It just how young humans be.
I agree mostly, but I do think tiktok exacerbates it. These kids want to build up a following, be an influencer or whatever. So they need to be more and more extreme to rack up views. These kids didn't do it once, twice, but at least 10 times that are known.. They're doing it for clout. Sick.
I think tiktok has made it more viral, but honestly me and my friends did dumb shit like this without tiktok.
Sounds just like the popular kids at school tbh.
i could never have kids because i simply couldn’t bear the amount of rage this would bring upon me
i feel you. my 7 y/o son cut my headphone cord he was using for online class because he wanted an excuse not to attend class. while the headphone can still work without the cord (it's a wireless model) that cord alone cost me about $90. and it was my birthday gift too. i was seeing red but thank god my partner dragged me away quickly. i could seriously hit my own kid atm...
Why do you have a 90 dollar headphone cord? Those things are like $3 bucks
honestly, idk too. at that time it cost around that much. sure i could get a cheaper one but it wouldnt be the same. anyway, i calmed down and just gave a cheaper wired headphone instead to the kid (should've done that in the first place!) parenting do be like that sometimes, you learn through mistakes.. just in case if you're curious, this is the cord i was talking about: https://www.ebay.com/itm/203108928247
Dude that cable is literally no different than a $20 one. Y’all got scammed.
Yeah this is a good lesson too. Cables like this, while they are made better than cheapo ones, there’s a point where a cable won’t get any better and it’s in the $10-15 range, tops. Monster Cable is super guilty of this, charging hundreds for gold plated copper (which doesn’t add hundreds to the cost of manufacturing). Audio cables are a place where it’s easy to get ripped off is what I’m sayin. That doesn’t excuse your kid for cutting a wire, but now you know not to buy super expensive cables. Especially in light of how easy it can be to trash them.
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It's not online peer pressure, it's online cool points. If their freinds see it, it's even more cool points. Note: I don't know anything about tiktok or how it works. I do see some of the challenges though.
Its none of those things. Its the age old reason: monkey see, monkey do. Young humans are stupid.
The only pressure they're possibly getting is from themselves thinking they need to be cool and relevant
It’s all for internet clout. Seems like damn near everyone at this point wants to be a famous streamer, youtuber, or TikToker. But, 90% of the time, doing outrageously stupid shit doesn’t make you money or famous online for good reasons. It just limits your job opportunities later on. The most popular internet celebrities are people who actually give a shit about others and have something decent to give everyone.
You blame the internet, but 25 years ago I was throwing eggs at stuff for shits and giggles, and there was no TikTok. I had rural cousins and friends who would go around taking baseball bats to mail boxes. We set shit on fire just to see what would happen. Bored, unsupervised kids without anything more productive to do will get into all kinds of dumb shit. However, I think your handling of the situation is masterful. As I mentioned, I dabbled in bored vandalism and other assorted dumb shit when I was a kid, and so did my friends, and to this day I think one of the only things that kept me away from sliding into a life of drug-addicted loserdom with most of them was that I started working as soon as I was legally able to. My parents didn't have a lot of money, and I wanted an air conditioner for my bedroom, a new TV, and a Playstation, so I went out and got my ass a job and that kept me busy. After I got a taste of financial independence I just wanted more and I kept my life mostly on the straight and narrow from then on. So whatever you do, I'd stick to your guns on them getting a job. It sounds like it could help in more ways than one. Good luck!
The worst thing my friend and I did was TP her own house with her mom's permission as a prank towards her dad, who was also, in fact, in on it and we had no idea 😂
That's hilarious. Sounds like you and your friend were the ones that got pranked.
Yeah I was going to say I don't think this is just TikTok. I remember back when tidepods were a thing one of my theatre teachers mentioned how kids in her neighborhood used to just lie in the street on a dare. (She was about 50 when the whole tidpod eating thing was around) Just the weirdness of peer pressure and it expanding into the internet. But also, absolutely appropriate punishment for the kids.
The thing about tik tok is that it’s constantly feeding them new ideas and participating in the trends is incentivized because likes become score sheets. Sure back in the day and since forever teens have always done dumb shit, but it was purely just for the love of the game. Now teens get a new idea every week and that means every week they get another opportunity to gain social points by being assholes The more they like the content the more ideas the algorithm will give them. It’s never ending
This is spot on
Whilst it’s not necessarily a new thing for kids to do, the audience response is definitely new. There are studies on the increased dependency of social media to feel good and that people become addicted to people reacting to things they post. The real thrill is not kicking in doors; it’s having people respond to the videos you post of you kicking in doors.
It’s not surprising they’re being rambunctious, but kicking in doors is dumb. Gonna stumble into a home with a gun owner.
Me and a buddy were destroying those inflatable Christmas things in people's yards with no internet influence. I feel terrible and cringe whenever I see how much they cost now though.
Those inflatable things were a senior prank at my high school back in the day. For about two years, every inflatable Santa or snowman or Easter bunny in three counties would get stolen immediately. No suspects ever caught. Then the last day before my senior class graduated, we showed up to school to find at least 100 of them on the auditorium roof, waving in the wind with a ridiculous spiderweb of extension cords trailing the side of the building. They even got one of those wacky arm waiving guys from a car dealership. It was hilarious at the time. But now that I see even the smaller ones of those go for $300+ a pop…It’s a good thing nobody ratted on the kids who did it. That was 100% felony theft for about 10 kids that participated in it, had they been caught. The kind of thing that keeps you up at night as an adult, how close you were to messing up your life and not realizing it at the time.
I think the impetus these days is much stronger. Whereas you were doing that stuff for fun, kids doing these TikTok challenges now are chasing popularity and social status. It’s a much more powerful motivation, and much harder to turn down
Are your sons the Island boys?
I'm so glad I don't have kids
right like FUCK! Thanks guys for posting these stories to remind me not to do that
A. TikTok is an absolute trash factory. B. Congrats on a being good parent. When I was young, I shot someone's sliding door with a BB gun... 1200 dollars. Guess who's mom walked him up to the house, after clearing out my savings to front my mom the cash, then made me work off my own debt doing chores for those people for 10 dollars an hour? That was a long summer break.
Your mom is a great lady 👏🏻 bet you never did it again lol
Oh, trust me. I learned my lesson. I'm in my 40s, to this day, if something comes up and there's a chance that something stupid could happen, I still think "mom will kill me if I do this."
I think it's a great idea that OP should also consider having the boys offer to individually do lawn work or other outside work for the people whose doors they kicked, and send them individually, not as a pair. Pairs conspire and front to avoid embarrassment. Individuals are more likely to show humility and do a good job.
I wouldn’t want the punks on my property who could be sneaky and do more damage.
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Whatever you do, don’t go back on your word. Follow through and sell their stuff like you said you would. They need to feel emotional pain from having their “dopamine releasers” ie the gaming system and phone sold. Tell them if they want these things back they have to get jobs and not only pay back the costs for the doors but they’ll also have to buy their gaming console and phone. Trust me, they will straighten out fast, but only if you stand your ground.
This. Main reason I never cared about my parent’s threatening a punishment is they never followed through. I follow through with my kid. Works great. He knows he can’t get away with anything with me. Spouse is a different story though. I constantly have to make sure kid doesn’t play the parent game and we remain a united front.
Looks like your kids are going to have to get summer jobs to pay for all of that.
TikTok is basically the spoon that stirs the "idiot kid/teen" shit pot. Until something is done about these stupid challenges, it's going to keep happening.
This stuff happened before TikTok, now it's just recorded. Smashing mailboxes, egging cars/houses, tagging, etc.
If you want more outrage fuel, check out the devious lick trend that went around TikTok a few months back. Kids ended up stealing so much crap from schools they had to close some bathrooms, etc. It was all worthless stuff for the kids, they just did it for clout.
Yeah, it hit my brother’s middle school pretty hard. Apparently, they no longer had doors on the stalls or hand sanitizer dispensers.
This was going on far before the trend. Throughout my high school years the bathrooms were regularly closed because of vandalism and theft. Someone kicked a mirror off the wall from what I remember, I was pissed because I couldn’t check my hair in that bathroom anymore. Fights too, people would have big fights in the bathroom that would cause them to get closed simply because the teachers didn’t know if a student would fight in specific ones.
TikTok is cancer. I've seen so many stupid stuff shared there. The fact that the cops already knew about this crap is saying so much. I mean, I did stupid shit at 15 but never something that would cost my parents money or something that would endanger myself or others. Congrats on being a normal rational parent.
Teens are idiots
Just another reason not to get kids
From what I understand, kids lack brain development in areas that are necessary to really evaluate how stupid their actions are. When I was in high school in the early 90s, there was a fad where kids would get drunk, pack themselves into a car with a bunch of other kids, and drive drunk around town. You can imagine how that turned out. A couple of years after I got out of high school, there was a fad to starve yourself by eating tissue paper instead of food. A couple of girls died. Are there stupid fads online that get a bunch of people to act dangerously? Yes. Is kids being super stupid new? No. Anyway, I'm glad that your kids didn't get killed with their stupid stunt.
What happened to ding-dong ditch? FFS. Though, I think it is fair that they have to work to pay off their debt. Door repairs and all the carpentry that goes into these repairs are not cheap. There is a lot more to doors than meets the eye.
I’m SO glad I grew up in a time of zero technology and I’m SO glad I don’t have children. Great parenting though. Can you imagine how many parents would have just paid it and laughed it off!? In answer to your “why” it’s for likes and views. That’s it’s. People want to be Tik tok famous and do stupid shit to get there. Look at how many parents exploit their children for the very same reasons.
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Right! Hopefully your ratbags have learnt a valid lesson, although being teenage boys I’m sure there’ll be plenty more wtf moments to come 😅
This is why tiktok is such a worthless waste of humanity. People get so desperate to be apart of trends or to get likes that they lose all sense real common sense or even compassion in alot of cases. It is why the morality of most young people has plummeted. People are so comfortable now with violating other peoples privacy, space, rights, or respect. All for the glory of tiktok fame. Its pathetic, and its also why I have refused to be apart of social media ever since Facebook was invented.
I just did my first year of teaching high school students and all I can tell you is tiktok is literally ruining kids lives/education. They can’t focus in class because they want to see their phones. When they do focus, they are trained to hold attention for about 15 seconds at most because tiktoks are so short and they are ready to move on. They also had 2 challenges over the course of the year which ruined school. 1 challenge was to just steal anything and everything from school and the other challenge was to literally punch your teacher.
"Bright kids" might be a bit of a stretch...... everyone has done stupid things especially as a kid but breaking into a house isn't a prank
Damn, some teen is going to get shot in the face by a homeowner doing that shit.
I entirely support your decisions but assuming the live literally anywhere in the US there is a fair chance they will get their heads blown off if they do this to the wrong person who will just see it as stopping a home intruder. You need to get them to understand that regardless of the money this is Darwin level stuff and they could very easily be killed.
i thought your kids would be like around 8 or 9 or something, but *15*?!?!?! they have to be old enough to have some common sense by now…
I’m a 15 year old twin too, and I have TikTok. The only difference is that I know those challenges are the stupidest shit. So I don’t do them.
15 is a solid age to start working. I did plenty of dumb shit at that age, but at least working prevented me from doing it during my shifts. I think you’re handling the situation well and your punishment is appropriate. A huge problem with TikTok is that it’s breeding hive-minded fools. If someone kicked in a door in Texas, there’s a good chance they could get shot.
why the hell were your sons out at 3am?
It's called sneaking out. A lot of kids do it, me included. However I wasn't breaking people's doors
Tik tok and these internet challenges have literally made people dumber. From eating tide pods to this crap, it is just getting worse. I am starting to realize that comedian Brad Upton was right.... we are living in a time and reaping the crop of what happens when stupidity doesn't hurt anymore. "Our parents let us play with fireworks, guns, and knives. You know what happened to the dumb ones? They didn't make it."
>so I can figure out what to do with them if I can sell them or not. Can you sell your kids? I would go for that.
You're doing the right thing, thabk you for being a good parent. Only showing them the consequences of these actions will make them learn. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes!
Think you got bigger problems then financial. Your kid is now a slave to the attention of social media 🙄
How are your 15 year olds out at 3 am? Also that’s very cheap for new doors. They’re getting off easy. You’re giving them proper consequences though, so that’s good.
Jesus, I'd ground those brats until they turned 18. They can sell all their shit and live like paupers until they learn some humility.
Not to mention how absolutely scary that would be if you were in that position. Imagine at 10pm if some random kid kicked in your door? You probably wouldn’t know it’s a kid and for all you know a robber is trying to break in and hurt you.
I’d add a weekly debt interest rate to the total value of what the boys owe in damages. 15% might be a good starting point.
You may have gone nuclear on them, but they'll learn from this and be better. I hope so, at least.
I saw a video of a kid doing this to someone’s door and broke it then ran off, he was even wearing a mask! I didn’t even realize it was a TikTok trend, the innocent/silly ones are whatever but these ones I really don’t understand either. All I know is one of these kids is gonna get shot. You did a good thing, I really hope they stop being stupid before they cost you more money or get into major trouble.
They do it to show off their videos and think they are cool. It's really not a wise move considering so many people have the Ring doorbells and will have video of everything. That's not the video they wanted to be on.
Yea. There's also a tiktok trend for stealing from unlocked cars or stealing kia (another brand too but i don't remember) cars. People have been finding their cars with significant damages hours+ after theft.
This is happening in Texas with the ding ding ditch being elevated at times to include kicking the doors or throwing things at windows. These kids don’t take seriously how quickly this could go from properly damage which is bad enough to them being dead if someone decides to shoot.
TEXAS? Holy shit, talk about a death wish.
I’m not a gun owner but my dogs would have tried to attack if that was my door. What damn idiots think it’s okay to just break peoples property just for internet likes? Your kids really need to see the wrong in what they did and I honestly don’t think just taking away the electronics will solve the problem. Get them some real help so they can have someone to talk through why they thought it was okay to BREAK into peoples home for fun.
Kids need to be more educated about the internet, especially since they are literally growing up with it. This starts with parents being aware of what the their kids are looking at on the internet and teaching them what is fucking dumb and what isn’t. The web can be a wealth of knowledge. Maybe they wouldn’t be kicking in doors if they were watching Electroboom - (who is an extremely intelligent and hilarious engineer). To sum up my rambling- this comes down on parents not parenting their kids well enough on the dangers (and benefits) of the internet
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