A mum has been forced to defend herself after she was slammed for the 'strict' punishment she gave her daughter.
Melanie took her 14-year-old daughter's phone away at 8:30pm and left it charging on the floor outside of her room.
But upon closer inspection, she realised she's been tricked.
Her daughter had drawn black circles onto a piece of paper and put it inside an empty iPhone case.
She then placed her charger into the slot at the bottom of the case to make it look like her phone was on charge.
Melanie shared her daughter's sneaky move on her TikTok @meldownes1983, where she said: "When your 14-year-old daughter has to hand her phone over at 8.30pm and leave it on charge outside my bedroom door… Trust no one!"
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But it got people talking for a different reason.
Since being posted, the video has racked up more than 560,000 likes and 8,700 comments from divided viewers.
While some people were impressed by the sneaky tactic, others thought the mum was being too strict.
One person said: "I'm seriously impressed."
"Lol she deserves the phone for being so clever," wrote another.
But a third person said: "Strict parents raise sneaky kids, trust me."
Someone else added: "At 14?? She'll keep getting smarter, trust me I ended up just leaving at 17."
But the mum stressed that she doesn’t normally take her daughter’s phone.
She said: "I should’ve clarified she’s having her phone confiscated because she’s misbehaved. It’s not a permanent thing."
A number of parents defended the mum's parenting style, as one person put: "Y'all confused strictness with discipline."
Another added: "Why are people mad? She's actually parenting her child."
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