Woman Sparks Family Frenzy For Teaching Stepson A Few Activities Meant For Grown Ups

"They said I was treating him like an adult and was stealing his childhood."

Jesse

• Published in Interesting
• May 15, 2023

Every parent has a style of parenting they adhere to. They have specific knowledge and values they intend to pass on to their children.

Due to these unique styles, more often than not, parents clash over parenting. One parent may feel the other is too strict, and the other may feel the opposite.

In cases where parents don’t share a romantic bond, these differences may be obvious. However, even in cases when both the mother and father of the child are living under the same roof, they will still have different opinions about different things.

We found a story on the AITA subreddit that paints a similar story. OP shared that she had recently taken over the care of her stepson because her husband’s job had taken him away from home for a month.

Since OP didn’t know much about children, she’d asked her husband how she could entertain his son. He had told her to allow him to do his own thing until he complained of boredom.

This didn’t feel right to OP, as she didn’t want to spend all day on his IPad, so she decided to teach him things like baking and playing board games.

When he spent a weekend with his grandparents, OP’s stepson insisted on baking and playing card games. This upset his grandparents, who accused OP of not allowing him to be a child.

OP’s husband also got upset when he found out, leading her to ask Redditors for their opinions.

Check out the verdict below!

The story in detail

OP's husband will be out of town for a month, and so she has been tasked with taking care of his stepson (Riley) till he returns. The problem is, she has no experience with kids

OP decided to teach Riley how to bake, card games, board games etc. But now her husband and OP's in-laws are not happy with her because they claim she's treating him like an adult

Check out the reactions from the Reddit community below:

"Your in laws see avoidance and neglect as a better parenting style than being engaging and actually teaching him things."

"Sounds like you were being a great stepmom. NTA"

"You’re not giving him adult responsibilities, you’re giving him freedom to explore himself and enjoy the hobbies he has."

"Your MIL sounds jealous that Riley is obviously enjoying his time with you. Don’t worry about her opinions."

"You're teaching him new things that he seems to enjoy"

"You are NTA. Maybe they're just mad because they can't be lazy and let him have his face in a screen all the time now."

"Please don’t let these crazies second guess you. You literally did what people pay babysitters to do"

"NTA whatsoever. Those all sound like great things for a kid to do with their step parent or parent"

The commenters are flabbergasted at OP’s husband’s and in-laws’ reactions. They can’t believe they are upset that OP taught her stepson some interesting skills he might need in the future.

They are more shocked that her husband and his parents are upset that OP’s stepson enjoys baking and playing games so much more than staying glued to a screen.

Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below!

Jesse