High school is brutal enough without your own mother teaming up with your worst tormentor. As parents, our one fundamental job is to protect our kids from the monsters of the world. But one sixteen year old boy on Reddit recently discovered that his own mother is perfectly willing to invite the monster right into their lives. The internet is absolutely raging over this ultimate parental betrayal, and you are going to need to take a deep breath before reading this one.
The Original Poster is a teenage boy who happens to attend the exact same high school where his mother works as a teacher. The school offers a special elective where students can become a teacher’s aide. In reality, this position is just a glorified mentorship program reserved for a teacher’s absolute favorite student. They grade papers, make copies, and get a ton of one on one bonding time with the staff member.
Every hero needs a villain, and in this story, his name is Dave. Dave is a seventeen year old guy who has made the Original Poster’s life a living nightmare since the sixth grade. We are talking about years of relentless physical and emotional bullying. This was not just a secret hallway rivalry. The entire school administration, the guidance counselors, and most importantly, the boy’s own parents are fully aware of the severe torment Dave inflicted on their son.
You would think a mother armed with that horrifying knowledge would do everything in her power to keep Dave away from her family. Instead, she did the exact opposite. At the beginning of the semester, the Original Poster found out his mother specifically chose Dave to be her brand new teacher’s aide. She voluntarily opted to spend her free periods mentoring the exact kid who terrorized her own child for years.
When the devastated son confronted his mother about this massive betrayal, she hit him with the most pathetic excuse imaginable. She claimed Dave is not actually a bad kid but just has a terrible home life that makes him act out. She cited her famous soft spot for troubled youth. Empathy is a wonderful trait for an educator to have, but it should absolutely never come at the expense of your own child’s safety and mental health.
The teenager asked a completely logical question. He pointed out that they go to a massive high school filled with dozens of other teachers and staff members who could easily step up to mentor this troubled kid. He begged to know why it had to be her. Instead of validating his completely justified pain, his mother gaslit him. She told her traumatized son to stop being selfish.
Realizing his mother had officially chosen his abuser over him, the teenager dropped a massive ultimatum. He calmly informed her that if she kept Dave as her aide, she was completely dead to him. He promised to cut all contact the exact second he turned eighteen. His mother actually rolled her eyes and called him dramatic. When he followed through and gave her the silent treatment, the parents unleashed a wave of unhinged retaliation.
Instead of recognizing their massive parenting failure, the mother and father decided to punish their son for having boundaries. The dad tried to force the boy to speak to his mother. When the teenager refused, the parents systematically stripped his entire bedroom bare. They took away his car, his computer, his guitar, and even his art supplies. They are currently forcing a victim of severe bullying to sit in an empty room every single day after school just because he refuses to comfort the woman who befriended his attacker.
Now the mother keeps crying outside his bedroom door, begging him to talk to her, while still absolutely refusing to remove Dave from her classroom. The teenager went online feeling guilty and wondering if he took things too far. The entire internet rushed to tell this kid that he is an absolute legend with boundaries of steel. He is not taking it too far at all. His parents have completely failed their most basic duty to protect him.
You cannot strip away a child’s coping mechanisms and force them into submission just to soothe your own guilty conscience. This mother chose her savior complex over her own flesh and blood. She wanted to play the hero for a troubled bully, but she ended up becoming the villain in her own son’s life. He is entirely justified in counting down the days until his eighteenth birthday.