When a group of little boys passed by and their smell filled the house, the father remained silent, assuming that their parents would take care of the problem.

However, when his son was teased for refusing to use deodorant, the father did not intervene, believing that the embarrassment would teach him a good lesson.

Now he begins to wonder if that was the right thing to do.

Was that it? Read on to find out the story.

My 10-year-old son Dylan is a bit rough with his friends, but he is a lot of fun to be with.

We are fortunate to have many families of Dylan’s classmates on our block.

A few days ago he had some friends over and they all stank.

I didn’t say anything because I knew her parents would fix it the minute they got home.

There’s nothing better than having a bunch of smelly prepubescent children in the house.

I told Dylan he needed to start using deodorant and he said he really didn’t need to.

I said, “Yes, you do, and I’ll give you some of it if you don’t.”

Today he was wrestling outside with his friends and didn’t put on any deodorant.

His friends told him that he smelled and that he should go back inside.

They insulted each other and Dylan came in crying.

Ah, puberty.

I later told him that it was his fault for not using deodorant and that his friends weren’t wrong.

He asked why I didn’t tell his friends to stop teasing him and I said because I knew it would hurt you so much that you would put on deodorant.

He said I was a mean father.

My goodness. There’s nothing like tears and hurt feelings to reveal that Dad’s plan to make him face the consequences didn’t quite work out as hoped.

Most Reddit users (probably the Reddit users who are parents of pre-pubescent children) are on the father’s side.

This person has quite a lot of understanding about the whole thing.

And that person believes they handled it in the best possible way.

But this one has some kind words for Dad.

Hmmmm…

Apparently the father thought tough love meant making his son sweat it out – literally.

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