Adolescence is tiring. And Reddit user Technical-Alps6831 believes her days would be a whole lot easier if it wasn't for her parents.
The 19-year-old, who is still living with them, feels like her younger brother is already capable of taking care of himself, which includes bearing the responsibility for his actions. However, when he snuck into her room and inadvertently got high off her edibles, their mom and dad blamed her.
So she told the story to the subreddit 'Am I the [Jerk]?' to get a better understanding of the situation.
This teenager thought she had her edibles well hidden, but her younger brother still found them
Image credits: Zinkevych_D / envanto (not the actual photo)
So their parents took strong measures to make sure it doesn't happen again
Image credits: Anna Shvets / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image source: Technical-Alps6831
Families need to support each other to work out their everyday life
Image credits: Askar Abayev / pexels (not the actual photo)
Family life can be difficult as it is, but when you add autism into the mix, even ordinary conflicts might become a very big deal.
Therefore, it's important for the children to feel they're all cared for and are all making a contribution to the household. This also encourages everyone to pull together as a family and teaches all children valuable skills and independence.
Experts recommend that parents set consistent rules, use strategies to encourage positive behavior in all their children, and try to be fair in handling aggressive or hurtful behavior from all their children as well as work out tasks and chores that suit their children's different ages, stages of development, strengths and abilities.
The author of the post said that her parents didn't seem to be "too against" her cannabis use, so it's hard to imagine the boundaries that they had settled on before the whole ordeal.
However, her argument that she's "an adult" doesn't really stand. As of January 2024, 24 states plus the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories have put in place regulations for the recreational use of marijuana. Recreational use—wherever it has been legalized—is limited to those who are 21 and older.
Autism advocate Lisa Jo Rudy acknowledges that older siblings of autistic children may be frustrated when parents' attention is pulled to a younger sibling. At at nineteen, however, the young woman, who already thinks of herself as an adult, should have already established her own place not only in her school but also in her family.
So if her parents think that their current arrangement isn't working, she should at least demonstrate some maturity and work together to find a solution.
Some people who have read the story, are on the teenager's side
But the majority blame either her or the entire family for what happened
