Sometimes parents allow their kids to deal with their relationships by themselves and sometimes they should necessarily intervene, to make sure certain lines that are not supposed to be crossed are protected. However, it isn’t a perfect world we are living in, and as it turns out, some parents themselves need guidance, as they intervene for quite a different reason, specifically to impose the uneven treatment of people from a very young age. At least this seems to have been this mom’s idea of “justice” when she allowed her daughter to throw balloons at her brother’s son, while simultaneously preventing him from defending himself and doing the same to the girl.
More info: Reddit
A girl's mother called this boy's father a creep for defending his son from her sick system
Image credits: Aaron Burden (not the actual photo)
She allowed her daughter to throw water balloons at the man's son, but stopped the boy from doing the same
Image credits: u/DateEducational190
Image credits: Matthias Zomer (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/DateEducational190
The kids were playing with water balloons when the man's son was done playing and came to sit by his father and dry off
Image credits: Delia Giandeini (not the actual photo)
The girl kept throwing more water balloons at him, but when he tried to do the same, her mother would tell him to "not dare"
A man brought it to Reddit, asking whether he was wrong to spray his niece with a hose, despite his sister telling him not to. It all took place during a family event when their kids were playing with water balloons.
It turned into quite an intense attraction as there were around 12 kids playing with 40 60-pack water balloons. However, at some point, the man’s youngest son decided the water was too much for him to handle, so he said he was done playing and came to sit by his father and dry off.
The man was happy his 8-year-old was doing great, as the boy has some significant sensory and anger management issues, and has already been diagnosed with ODD. However, the man’s 12-year-old niece kept coming up and throwing more water balloons at the boy despite being asked to stop.
The boy was getting angry, but every time he tried to defend himself and do the same to his cousin, not only would the girl scream to stop, but her mother would tell him to “not dare” because the girl “was wearing white and it’d be see-through”.
So the girl’s mother allowed her to throw balloons at the man’s son, but did not allow the boy to defend himself. And even to the man asking his sister to stop her daughter from throwing water balloons at his son, she answered with “he’s already wet”.
When the girl did it again, despite the man asking her to not do it, he took a hose and drenched her for 30 seconds
Image credits: Lars Plougmann (not the actual photo)
The girl started crying, while her mother called the man a creep and claimed her dress was see-through
The last time the man’s niece approached his son, the man told her to “not think about it” because the boy said no. However, as the girl didn’t listen and threw the water balloon at him anyway, the man grabbed the hose beside him and drenched her for a solid 30 seconds.
The girl immediately started crying, while her mother started berating the man, calling him a creep and claiming her dress was see-through, even though it was not. Their parents kicked the woman out for this comment, but the woman's husband texted him that he would never be allowed around his niece again.
The Redditor’s post gathered 21K upvotes on the AITAH subreddit and the boy’s father was backed by the commenters online. The behavior of the man’s niece, and her mother’s response to it, could be seen as indicating a permissive parenting style, which was discussed in the article devoted to this topic by Verywell Mind.
Based on the article, permissive parenting is one of the four main types of parenting among authoritative, authoritarian, and unresponsive parenting styles. Its distinctive features involve high levels of warmth from a parent to a child, but low levels of structure and discipline, which often results in low self-control and low responsibility of a child.
According to Meghan Downey, such parents present themselves more like “friends” rather than parents, and by not setting the appropriate behavioral boundaries, such parents often fail to teach their kids the adaptive skills they need for proper development and simply leave the “raising” of the child to the children themselves.
Whitney Casares for Verywell Mind gave an example of permissive parenting, which included a kid hitting another kid or a sibling, while a parent wouldn’t dole out a consequence or maybe not even say a thing to address such behavior.
While permissive parents often have their children’s emotional interests at heart by not setting boundaries and rules, they tend to prevent them from forming important developmental skills and habits.
Redditors backed the man, claiming that if you don't want to get sprayed, you don't get to do it either
