When our sweet little babies turn into teenagers and then adults, parents don’t exactly lose the instinct to protect them. Sometimes, they do that even when their kids are obviously in the wrong. That’s pretty apparent when we read a recent Reddit post from a mother whose teenage boys got involved in twisted game of cyberbullying.
The AITA subreddit title “AITA for praising my son for sticking up for his brother?” sets us up for being on the mom’s side, but after reading the whole story, we’re not so sure. It all begins with a 13-year-old boy’s crush on a girl named Chelsea.
“He didn’t know how to tell her so he hand-wrote her a poem, decorated it and took a picture and texted it to her,” Song_Southern wrote. “Nothing inappropriate. It was quite charming.”
This girl was just not that into the love poem, however, and rather viciously posted it to her Instagram calling him a weirdo and loser. Yup, our hearts are breaking right now, too. But then…
“My other son, he’s 16yo, responded by posting a picture of her mother dressed like a ho and said something about his brother might be weird but at least he isn’t a THOT like her mom (I guess he found the picture going through the mom’s FB account),” Song_Southern said.
The girl’s mom was understandably not pleased, but Song_Southern said she wouldn’t make her son take down his post until the girl took down hers and replaced it with an apology. Then Song_Southern also refused to punish the older boy for his act of bullying, since he did it to stick up for his brother.
The response to this has so contentious that moderators on AITA first locked out comments and now have removed the original post.
There are those on the girl’s mom’s side: “Even if you don’t punish him, you should explain to him that he shouldn’t be slut-shaming women,” EffectiveCycle wrote.
“Your 13-year-old son has now learned that if a girl/woman turns down his interest, it’s okay to slut shame and sexually demean women from his older brother,” AnyQuantity1 argued. “Do you want to raise sons who feels it’s perfectly fine to treat women this way when they are rejected, their feelings are hurt, or feel the least bit slighted? Do you not at all see how you’re setting up future women for victimization?”
A few were on the boys’ mom’s side.
“The message the 16yo (who’s brain isn’t even near developed yet) sent was wrong, he should be corrected, but his intention to stick up for his brother is actually sweet,” CabernetTheCat wrote. “One time I bit a girl and made her bleed when she pushed my sister and made her cry. No regrets. You touch my sibs and I’m coming for you.”
But a whole lot of people wrote in with the ruling of “Everybody Sucks Here” (ESH), except for the 13-year-old boy and the girl’s mom.
“Your 13-year-old was such a gentleman, and your 16-year-old was inappropriate in equal measure,” LawGrad001 said. “As a general matter, I think it’s awesome that your 16-year-old wants to defend his brother, but this was not the way. Obvi the girl who mocked your 13-year-old is horrible.”
The old-fashioned saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” may just apply here. Or, here’s a new one: Parents, teach your kids to respect each other and not to use the internet as a weapon.
Keep your kids away from screens altogether with these toys.
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