Emily Duprie
Mother/daughter relationships can get pretty feisty, and whether you’re a good mom or not, having a teenage girl is no easy task. Making sure your child is doing good in school is usually a priority in the house and can often cause a large amount of stress and tension between a child and their parents. There are cases however, when grades begin to slip for valid reasons.
One teenage girl recently got into a traumatic car accident and after her post-pain symptoms began to get in the way of her GPA, her mom jumped to the “Am I The A-hole?” subreddit to see if she had been to hard on her for it. Read the story in full below along with some of the top comments and let us know what your opinion on OP’s (original posters) parenting style was!
‘We started arguing about it and I said that her grades matter more than her “pain.”‘
OP asked Reddit: “AITA for telling my daughter that her grades are more important than her pain right now?”
Preface: if I come off as callous it’s because I’m trying to be succinct
I (46f) have a 16 year old daughter. In July, she was in a car accident. Most of her injuries were mild. She went to the hospital but they let her go home after a few days of observation. But even after we got home, she still complained a lot about pain. I was concerned and took her to our GP but they couldn’t find anything wrong. I told her it was probably in her head and in response to the traumatic event and that she’d be fine in a few days. She stopped complaining about it after that and everything seemed good.
Fast forward to yesterday and I got an email from her teacher that’s she’s constantly despondent in class and laying her head down and not participating. I was already seeing red from that and I decided to check on her grades. She turned in multiple assignments late and lost points on them, which is not at all on par with her typical performance.
I confronted her about it and she was really quiet at first, like she didn’t know what to say. I pushed her on it and she started talking about pain again which I frankly think is bullshit. She hasn’t said a peep about it for two months, only when her grades are slipping. We started arguing about it and I said that her grades matter more than her “pain”. She’s a junior this year, it is not the time to be slacking.
She’s been in her room since, refusing to talk to anyone. She wouldn’t even go to school today. I’m at a loss, she’s never been so difficult. And I’m questioning whether or not I’m in the right here. AITA?
Mom added an edit to her post after realizing that maybe she was the “A-hole” in this scenario…
Edit: I get it, I’m an awful person. I wasn’t seeing past the grades and I treated my daughter horribly. Thank you especially to the medical professionals who replied, I had no idea this could be so serious. I’ve already booked a specialist for two weeks from now (earliest appointment) and apologized to my daughter. I know I still have a lot of making up to do. We’re going out for ice cream.
Redditors in the comment section had a lot to say to this over-bearing mother:
