A mother has been slammed online after she canceled her 10-year-old daughter’s birthday party just because she failed to do the dishes.
The woman and her husband wanted to teach their children the values of chores and regularly get them to do tasks around the house.
She took to Reddit’s AITA forum and explained: “Last Sunday was my 10-year-old daughter’s turn for dishes, but she kept getting distracted by her siblings and didn’t get them done. Every time I went to the kitchen she wasn’t there and I had to go find her to bring her back.”
She continued: “She said the water made her hands itchy, and there were too many dishes. Eventually it was bedtime so I said she would have to do them tomorrow.
“Every day last week was the same thing. I left her to do the dishes, and she wandered off playing outside or sitting watching TV. She complained that now there were even more dishes than before.
“I said, ‘That’s what you gets for putting it off.’”
On Wednesday, she said she told her: “If you don’t finish these dishes by tomorrow at bedtime, I will cancel your birthday party.”
That afternoon, her daughter washed some and returned outside to play. The next day, she “acted like the dishes didn’t exist and didn’t try to do them at all.”
“At the end of the day I told her the party was off, like we had talked about the day before, and she threw a massive tantrum. She said I was ruining her birthday and she only turns 10 once,” the mother continued.
“On Friday – her birthday – I sent messages to all the parents of the invited kids letting them know we were cancelling. I let her pick what I made for dinner and I baked a homemade cake but she was still very grumpy with me and struggled to get along with her siblings.”
She went on: “My daughter wouldn’t come out of her room and screamed at her sisters who share the room with her. She called her aunt on the family landline and my sister said that I was too harsh and I’ve traumatized my daughter.
“My husband says what we did is no one’s business, and she’s growing up and needs to learn how to help around the house and learn about natural consequences.”
People were quick to share their thoughts, with one Reddit user writing: “She kept getting distracted by her siblings? So she was cleaning up after 7 people, and watching her siblings. What were you doing? Clearly not parenting.”
Another commented: “If she wasn’t doing her chores there’s other ways to help her learn such as, no playing outside till they are done, no TV and so on.point 244 |
You have taken away her BIRTHDAY PARTY which her friends would have been excited about as well! She’s probably going to have questions from friends and will feel gutted, I’m heartbroken for her.point 174 | ”point 177 | 1
A third added: “You’re working in extremes which is never good for children. There were so many things between nothing and cancelling a birthday party that you could have done.”
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