It happened two days ago and I can't stop thinking about it. I always considered myself a decent father, one of those who tries to talk and resolve things through conversation, but this time I simply lost my patience.
My daughter is 17 and my son is 13. Their mother died of cancer two years ago, and since then I've been taking care of everything alone, working two shifts so that nothing is lacking.
I thought the older one was mature enough to help at home and set an example for her brother, but lately things between them have only gotten worse.
When I arrived home early from work, my son was locked in his room, crying a lot, with a swollen face and a cut lip. At first he didn't want to talk, but then he poured everything out. His sister had hit him badly. It wasn't just one slap. There were several slaps, punches, and she even pushed him against the wall.
All because he borrowed her charger to do a school assignment. He said his charger had malfunctioned and he needed to deliver online.
He showed me some purple marks on his arm, where she had squeezed hard while yelling. He told me that for weeks she's been humiliating him, calling him a parasite, a crybaby, hiding his things, and threatening to beat him if he tells me anything.
I was schocked. I went to her room to ask if it was true, and she answered me in that arrogant way: "He deserves it, he's always bothering me." I yelled at her, and she called me an idiot, and I completely lost my temper. I slapped her hard across the face. She fell back onto the bed, looking at me in shock.
At the time, I didn't feel any remorse. I just said that if she touched her brother again, it would be worse. Now she's locked in her room, barely speaking to me.
My son is afraid to leave his room when she's home. And here I am feeling like the worst father in the world for hitting my own daughter... but at the same time I remember the marks on my 12-year-old son's arm and a part of me still thinks she needed to feel what she did.
I know that violence isn't solved with more violence. I know I was wrong. But what should I do? Pretend nothing happened and let my son get beaten inside the house?
Now the atmosphere at home is a deep silence and I hope things get better from now on.
I vented because I have no one to talk to about this. My family lives far away and I don't want them to know about this whole mess. I just needed to vent.