His Teenage Daughter Is Battling Mental Health Struggles And Had Been Spending All Day And All Night On Her Computer, So He Began Changing The WiFi Password Every Day, And His Daughter Now “Hates Him”

Natalia Chircova - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Natalia Chircova - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

This man has a 17-year-old daughter named Kim, who has been struggling with her mental health. It has even gotten to a point where she has refused to go to school nearly every day.

In fact, Kim only went to school for a total of four days in January. And even though he and his wife have been working with the school in order for Kim to obtain her homework digitally, his daughter has not been keeping up with it.

So, they have since gotten Kim into therapy as well as counseling through the school last fall.

“But the results of that have been mixed, as I don’t think Kim is putting in the necessary work on her end.  She is on medication, but we are still working with her doctor to find the right combination to meet her needs,” he explained.

He also claims that if his daughter had “her way,” then Kim would just spend every day in bed and on her laptop. Apparently, that is pretty much what she does already, too.

Kim reportedly does not help around the house, doesn’t work, doesn’t go to school, and doesn’t eat any meals with the family. Instead, she will sit in her room, glued to her computer, all day and all night.

Now, he claims that he and his wife have tried “so many different things” to help their daughter. However, nothing seems to help Kim make any positive changes.

“It’s infuriating and heartbreaking at the same time,” he admitted.

Although, he did recognize that one constant throughout all of Kim’s struggles has been devices– specifically her computer and phone.

Natalia Chircova – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

She is constantly on them, and no matter how much he tells Kim that it is important to spend time off the screen, she reportedly insists that the devices are not causing her problems.

So, eventually, he decided to take matters into his own hands and began frequently changing his home’s WiFi password to one that only he and his wife knew.

He actually changes the password every single night before they go to sleep. Then, he does not change the password back until both he and his wife get home from work.

And if you could not have guessed, Kim was not happy about this whatsoever. In fact, she used up all of their family plan data in under a week– forcing him to change the plan in order to restrict Kim’s usage.

At first, his wife was also on board with his idea and agreed that Kim was spending way too much time online.

Once Kim became upset, blew through the data, and threw a “gigantic tantrum,” though, his wife started to have second thoughts.

Apparently, Kim tried to argue that if he and his wife wanted her to do schoolwork at home, then she would need the internet.

Honestly, though, he pointed out how his daughter’s argument was a moot point– since she was not really doing any work anyway.

Then, Kim reportedly tried to claim that she needed the internet in order to access her support network.

But, he rebutted that argument, too– and reminded his daughter that they take her to therapy and counseling in person.

He also admitted that maybe if it felt like she put more effort into those sources of support, then she would make more progress.

Ever since then, Kim reportedly “hates” him for restricting the WiFi– and has even claimed that doing so in this “day and age” is abusive.

His wife, too, is wavering in her support of the idea since Kim still is not showing any positive mental health changes or going to school.

His mental health is now struggling because of all of these issues, also. He feels as though every day is an emotional roller coaster in which he cycles through frustration, anger, futility, embarrassment, fear, and feeling like a failure.

“I know Kim is struggling, and seeing your child go through something that you cannot fix is a hell I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” he vented.

“All I am trying to do is gently force Kim to focus on her issues and take steps necessary to address them and make progress towards being a functional adult. She has three acceptance letters to colleges that she is very unlikely to attend now.”

So, in the wake of his efforts, he has been left wondering whether changing his house’s WiFi password every day is the best way to address his daughter’s screen time overconsumption or not.

Do you think too much screen time can damage Kim’s mental health even further? Or is it possible that her support system is really online? Should he try talking to Kim to understand her internet needs and what she is doing online better? How would you handle this situation? 

You can read the original post on Reddit here.

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Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing ... More about Katharina Buczek

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