Molly Wooden is a mom in Fort Hood, Texas. She has a young son and in 2020 was out running errands with him when he needed to use the restroom. No problem, right? Except when they entered the restroom, they realized another mom was using the restroom to discipline her son.
Molly said, "I walked in, and originally the mother had been standing there with her arms crossed. Her son was sitting in the opposite corner, sitting on the floor kind of giving her attitude. I was kind of minding my own business and then she was like, 'OK, I gave you a warning, you're at so-and-so many push-ups, you're about to get 10 more …' She was like, 'Let's go, right here.'"
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Molly was immediately enthralled by the discipline technique of the other mom, Nicki Quinn. Molly explained, "I was standing there in awe. I was like, 'Yes! You are amazing! I'm getting chills in this bathroom right now!'" Molly took a photo, and shared it on Facebook a few hours later, praising the mom's discipline tactics.
From there, the story only got bigger.
While push-ups in the bathroom might seem unusual, Nicki explained that it's just what works for her son. He has been diagnosed with both ADHD and oppositional defiance disorder (ODD), and while he takes medication for the conditions, it's not always enough. She said that, as kids sometimes do, her son began to misbehave while they were out shopping. So she did what she always does.
Nicki said his behavior was really disruptive. "He's bothering his 3-year-old brother, taking stuff off the shelves, bouncing balls around. I'm like, 'Stop, don't do that, quit, stop' … He gave me an attitude, started talking back and being ugly, and I was like, 'We are not doing this.'"
Nicki then took him into the restroom, so she could discipline her son in private.
She told him to do 10 push-ups. She says the system is already part of their household. "We've already implemented the push-up system at my house, so it wasn't anything new. So he knew that that's what was going to go down."
Nicki also explained that her goal is the same as a lot of moms: to help her son learn to respect others and to behave.
Nicki is also shouldering a lot of parenting alone right now. She's a stay-at-home mom, and her husband is deployed: "I'm the person that has to teach them. I gotta do what I have to do to make sure my son is respectful to me, because when he's respectful to me, he's going to respect everyone else, like his teachers and his fellow students."
Molly Wooden offered more praise for Nicki, and especially loved that she wasn't "afraid to parent … because of what someone else might think."
Nicki said that she saw the post and initially wasn't sure what to think. "I was like, 'Kind of strange, OK.' But when I read the post and saw why (Wooden) had done it, all that feeling kind of went away."
It really helped that Nicki and Molly seem to agree on Nicki's approach. Nicki added, "I was like, 'Well, thank God she didn't shame me. Thank God there was another mother with sense. It's been overwhelming and overwhelmingly supportive. I see the good and the bad."
Molly did say she has conflicting thoughts about sharing the video.
"I feel a little bit bad, because (Quinn) didn't ask for this, but at the same time, it's a really strong message. She's excited for this opportunity to grow and to be seen and heard."
Nicki also said, "At the end of the day, we started a debate about something."
She added, "You have so many people out here with these kids that are unruly, and they don't know what to do because they're afraid of discipline, to get in trouble, to have people sticking their nose in their business and making them feel inadequate as parents. So they can't parent properly, and it's not fair. I am not going to let my child run me."
In her post, Molly wrote:
“To the woman in the Hobby Lobby bathroom. If my hands weren’t full of children I would have applauded you. As your son gave you the back talk of the century, you stayed calm and collected while adding 10 more push ups to his already growing number.”
“We need more parents like you, who aren’t afraid to parent their own children because of what someone else might think. He said ‘Mama, this is the bathroom floor, grossssss’.
She said ‘maybe you shouldn’t have been acting obnoxious. (They have soap for a reason.) 10 more.'”
“Random woman of Hobby Lobby, I love you.
Keep on raisin’ them boys right!”
It also sounds like they might stay friends! Molly added, “I have since found the Mom through the power of social media and she promptly thanked me for posting this, says she appreciates the support and positive comments, and we’re hoping to grab coffee sometime… while supervising push ups that is.”
