Being a parent is hard work. As kids grow up and turn into teenagers, they become less likely to want to be physically affectionate with their parents. Most parents would take as many opportunities as they could to prolong that affection, but one mother went the completely opposite direction.
u/Abject_Ad_4249 seemed to think that her 11-year-old daughter needed to grow up faster, and posted on the r/AITA subreddit after her poor parenting decision backfired.
She wrote in the title, “AITAH for telling my daughter she’s too old to be sitting on my lap?”
“I (37f) am married to my husband (38m) and we have a daughter together (11f),” u/Abject_Ad_4249 said. “My daughter is very small for her age and as a result gets treated like a younger child sometimes.”
“She loves to hop in my or my husband’s lap and cuddle with us on the couch or in a chair.”
The poor girl’s mother seemed to think that this was a little kid thing to do, however, and said, “I have been thinking that she may be too old for that sort of thing and maybe I’m hurting her by letting her continue.”
“Yesterday she tried to hop in my lap and cuddle and I told her she was too old for that and to get off me. She got really upset, got off me and went to her room and slammed the door,” u/Abject_Ad_4249 said. “She hasnt tried to get in my lap since then and things are tense between us. She doesnt talk to me unless she has to and when I hugged her goodnight last night she didnt hug me back.”
“I feel really guilty because I obviously hurt her feelings but I feel like she might be too old for sitting on my lap,” she concluded the post.
Redditors told the mother that she had made a very bad call in telling her daughter to basically grow up and that she was going to regret it down the line.
Luckily, it looks like Redditors have made her see the light, and u/Abject_Ad_4249 wrote in the comments that she would be making an effort to apologize and make amends — though it’s likely that the memory of her mother’s rejection is going to be staying with her daughter for a very long time.
