Parents Cancel Christmas: Too Cruel or Good Lesson?

A family from Utah is making national headlines after canceling Christmas for their three misbehaving children. John and Lisa Henderson followed through with an empty threat that most parents make to keep their children in line during the holidays; they've banned presents from Santa this year.

In a Good Morning America interview, the parents explained that their three children, aged 5, 8 and 11 were acting up, hitting each other and not appreciating what they already had. The decision was made to tell the children that Christmas was canceled and they would not be receiving anything. The mother and father explained to their kids that money set aside for presents would be given to the poor.

Reaction has been mixed. Some have applauded the family for teaching their kids a valuable lesson, while others claim that the punishment is too severe. As a parent myself, I am going to have to agree with the latter.

I think it's vital to teach children the difference between right and wrong and to appreciate everything they have in life. But that's something that needs to be done every day of the year, not after they've gone so far off the deep-end that drastic measures are in order. Parenting is a 24/7 job, not a cleanup assignment after things have gotten completely out of control. Clearly these parents weren't reenforcing good behavior if it got to the point where they had to go to the extreme of canceling Christmas for  5-, 8- and 11-year-old children.

Santa, Christmas and everything that goes with it make up a majority of our fondest childhood memories. There is no greater feeling than running downstairs to find presents under the tree on Christmas morning or to fall asleep listening to hear Santa's reindeer on the roof. To take that away from these kids for the rest of their lives as such a young age is an extremely desperate measure.  One could wonder; if your kids are this terribly bratty and have gotten away with such extremely bad behavior, is it really their fault or the fault of bad parenting? And what happens when they misbehave again? No more birthdays?

I'm sure that there are parents out there that disagree, so let us know in the comments section below. Are these parents the best or worst parents ever?