Best. Dad. Ever.

Last week I heard a story on the news that I knew I had to share on my blog. Scott Mackintosh, a Utah father of seven, and his wife have been struggling with their teenage daughter in regards to her clothing choices that are often inappropriate or immodest.

A few Mondays ago Scott and his family were going on a family outing, and the daughter was dressed immodestly. Scott said, "I heard my wife ask our daughter if she would please change into some longer shorts before leaving. She said, 'NO!' Instead of turning her response and disrespectful attitude into a major battle, I decided to make a 'small' statement on how her short shorts maybe aren't as 'cute' as she thinks!"

So Scott decided to do something bold to get his daughter to see things in a different light. As his family was loading into the car, he took an old pair of jeans and cut the legs off, making a pair of very short shorts (similar to the kind his daughter tries to wear). Dressed in his new shorts, he went out to the van where the kids were waiting. Scott was talking to the kids, hoping to get their attention, but their heads were bent down, focused on their cell phones. When the mom was ready to go, the kids still hadn't noticed what Scott was wearing, even though he was standing right there talking to them. (He wanted the kids to notice his shorts on their own and didn't want to have to say, "Look what I'm wearing.") He still hadn't made his point, so although he never actually intended to leave his house wearing his homemade Daisy Dukes, he decided that that's just what had to be done. "I was absolutely going for shock value and a little embarrassment," Scott said.

Somewhere along the way one of the kids finally noticed Scott's short shorts and the daughter gave him one of her disgusted looks and asked him why he was dressed like that, followed by "Oh well, I don't care." The family arrived at the restaurant and they went in to have dinner. The restaurant wasn't very crowded and the daughter didn't seem to care as much as Scott was hoping, so after they were finished eating Scott suggested going miniature golfing.

The miniature golf place was busier and it didn't take long for people to notice Scott's shorts. Lots of people were staring and/or pointing, and they even noticed some young girls taking pictures of Scott on their cell phones. The family decided to end their outing by getting a milkshake. When Scott pulled into a parking spot his daughter said, "Uh, no! We are NOT going in!" Scott said, "Sure we are, let's go!" "No!" the daughter said, "Let's go through the drive through." The family went in, but the daughter decided to stay in the car. She'd had enough and didn't want to go through any further embarrassment.

Scott wrote about the experience on his wife's blog. At the end of his post he summed up the experience by saying, "There was no 'Dad I get it' or 'Dad you're the best… thanks for that awesome lesson.' I don't think my object lesson of 'modest is hottest' made the statement I had intended. But no matter … my daughter will always know that dad loves her and cares about her enough to make a fool of himself."

I think it's great that this dad was willing to do something that would embarrass himself a little in attempts to teach his daughter a lesson about modesty. (I also loved how he wore a shirt that said "Best. Dad. Ever." Check Scott out: