Stepdad punishes boy's disrespect with pushups and squats in viral video

A stepfather has gone viral for using exercise to discipline his stepson - and then sharing the video on Instagram.

The boy was caught telling his mother to "chill" after he was told to stop his current behavior.

His stepdad stepped in, asking the boy, "Did you just tell your mom to 'chill'?"

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He then instructed his stepson to do several push-ups, followed by 60 squats.

"Count 'em," the man told his stepson calmly, as he moved through the workout. "Keep squatting. All the way down."

The punishment was followed by a conversation where the stepdad asked, "Do we tell our mom to chill out?"

The boy replied, "No."

The man responded, "Absolutely not. I will not let you talk to my girl that way … Would I let anyone else talk to her like that? No. So, you don't get to talk to her like that."

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The two hugged it out, and the boy apologized to his mother with a wholesome, "Sorry, Mom."

The stepdad ended the conversation by reassuring the boy that he was loved.

"Hey, I love you," he said.

The video, which was posted on the family's Instagram account, raisingmaletich, has since gone viral on social media, receiving millions of views.

The mother, who wrote the caption for the video, shared the following.

"I will never stop being grateful to be raising kids with a real man who knows how to be a father, especially to his boys. This is masculinity. I was trying to send a work email while making breakfast for my family and my son kept asking me to use my phone after I had repeatedly told him 'No, you need to wait.' His dad overheard him tell me to 'chill' and here is how he handled it."

The parenting approach was met with mixed reactions, but many social media users shared their praise.

"Stepdad did the right thing. Awesome!" one X user commented under Fox News' post of the video.

"That's an awesome punishment. Good job on the stepdad!" another wrote.

Educational psychologist and parenting expert Dr. Michele Borba reacted to the viral moment in an interview with Fox News Digital, noting that discipline is not one-size-fits-all.

Borba, who is based in California, commented that the stepfather approached discipline the "right way" in this scenario, by responding calmly instead of reacting, and enforcing a punishment that seemed familiar and doable for the child.

"It may be something that he and the kid did together or the kid is good at, because [he] seems to have no problem doing it," she said.

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"The most amazing thing the dad did was right on the mark … He said, 'Here's what was wrong.' He was very calm in his delivery," Borba went on. "And then he let his stepson know in no uncertain terms - you don't speak like that to your mom and I don't want you to do it again."

Where the punishment went wrong, the expert noted, was when the parents posted it on the internet, at which point it became less about physical consequences and more about public humiliation.

"Whatever was done now just crumbles, because the discipline is no longer face-to-face appropriate … it's shaming," Borba said.

"The huge red flag was going viral with it, because now it's not guilt. It's shame. It's public," she added. "You've got a real emotional issue now."

Borba stressed that discipline should always be age-appropriate and tailored to the child, as making a child do strenuous exercise they are not comfortable with would be considered inappropriate.

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It is important for discipline to be delivered in a way that is both responsible and respectful, the expert said.

"The key question is, will it enhance the child's behavior so they don't repeat the behavior?"