You know what the hardest thing about being a parent to teenagers actually is? No, not participating in all those school runs, and not even trying to find common ground with your teen offspring. The hardest thing is dealing with the various kinds of entitled parents that you’ll definitely encounter along the way.
So the user u/Frustradad, as you can easily guess from his username, didn’t expect at all that his completely harmless and reasonable decision regarding his 12-year-old daughter would soon cause a barrage of criticism from one of the school moms. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is a single dad raising his 12-year-old daughter after her mom passed away in a car accident years ago
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
The man considers himself quite a decent dad and tries to always be reasonable with daughter's wishes and ideas
Image credits: Frustradad
Image credits: Kaboompics.com / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Recently, the girl asked the dad to let her start wearing thong underwear - mostly because it's comfortable for her
Image credits: Frustradad
Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The man listened to all her points and agreed - so they went to the store and bought some
Image credits: Frustradad
Image credits: stockking / Freepik (not the actual photo)
However, the dad received a wrathful call from one of his daughter's friend's mom soon after, who literally dubbed him a perv for giving permission
Image credits: Frustradad
It turned out that all of the girl's friends also wanted thongs for themselves and the mom demanded the author consult with other parents before buying it
So, the Original Poster (OP) is a single dad, raising his 12-year-old daughter - ever since her mom passed away in a car accident. The man devoted himself entirely to fatherhood, and only in the last couple of months, according to himself, began dating some lady. However, she has practically nothing to do with this story.
So, one day, the daughter asked the father to buy her some thong underwear - simply because wearing regular underwear under yoga pants was, firstly, uncomfortable, and secondly, unflattering. The girl said that "visually it looked like she’s wearing dad’s boxers under these" - and the dad agreed with these arguments.
Long story short, they went to the store and bought her this underwear, and a couple of days later, our hero received an angry call from the mom of one of the daughter's friends. This lady almost accused the OP of being a perv, and his daughter - of corrupting all of her friends. Later, when the author came out of his groggy state, he was able to restore the sequence of events.
Of course, the friends found out that the author's daughter wore thongs - and immediately demanded that their parents buy them the same thing, citing her as a clear example. Well, different parents had different views on what age you could wear such underwear and why.
So, this mom demanded that our hero first consult with the other parents - and then give her daughter permission. The man’s girlfriend cautiously suggested that this was a reasonable idea, but he himself simply considered that lady’s demand weird at the very least, and decided to ask for some advice online.
Image credits: Andrej Lišakov / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
It must be said that in society, the meaning of this or that piece of clothing is often exaggerated, and sometimes things like thong underwear really do acquire a completely different subtext than necessary. Obviously, the author’s daughter really wanted to look and feel more comfortable, and here it was precisely the question of convenience - so her friend’s mom was being quite unreasonable here.
As for the age when girls usually start wearing this kind of underwear, opinions vary from different sources, but the consensus is approximately between 13 and 15 years old. In other words, the original poster’s daughter almost fits this criteria. And of course, no one is asking whether to coordinate this issue with the other parents…
"It’s just underwear. Anyone saying never or not until they’re 18 is weirdly s*xualising it,” is stated, for example, in this no less heated discussion on Kids Spot. Well, many commenters under the original post also agreed that the author should ignore the indignation of that lady, and just allow the daughter to be herself.
As for the daughter’s friend and her mom, many readers are simply sure that their family lacks proper communication, and that is why the story caused such backlash. "Their sense of self importance is crazy,” one of the responders concluded reasonably. By the way, we’ll highly appreciate your own opinions in the comments below as well.
Most commenters sided with the dad, claiming that it was none of that mom's business and the girl should consider what's comfortable for her and what's not
