There is balance in everything we strive to teach our kids. While we want them to respect their elders, we also want to empower them to speak up against anything their elders do to makes them uncomfortable.
One mom was left reeling when her own mother-in-law tested those boundaries by giving her little girl a nickname she didn't appreciate, then flipping out when the little girl said something.
It all started out innocently enough when her daughter was just a baby.
"I have a five year old daughter named Colette," the mom began in a Reddit thread. "Ever since she was born my MIL called my daughter 'letters' as a nickname (because Colette ends in lette i'm guessing). It's not the greatest nickname in the world but I let it go."
After years of this, her daughter finally asked why her grandmother calls her "letters."
When she simply explained that her grandmom just said it as a nickname, her daughter bristled. The mom asked her if she liked the nickname, the daughter replied "not really." So the mom told her it was OK for her to tell her grandmother that she didn't like the nickname and preferred to be called by her full first name.
So after her daughter spent the day at her MIL's house, she got a call later that night.
"She tells me that it was really rude for Colette to say she didn't like her nick name," the mom revealed. "And that I shouldn't have told her to say that. She said I was raising her to be bratty. She also said that Colette couldn't come over until she apologized and says that she likes being called letters."
The mom utterly lost it, cussed at her, and hung up the phone for banning her daughter from her house over a nickname. And now the mom wants to know: Did she overreact?
Overreact? Psh, people were applauding her for standing up for herself and her daughter.
"Time for your husband to involve himself," added one reader. "You and Colette have done nothing wrong assuming Colette wasn't actually rude in how she spoke to your MIL. Your MIL, on the other hand, has overreacted (I'm guessing she was embarrassed when Colette told her to knock it off) a lot and now your husband has to become involved to advocate for his wife and daughter. It's his mom, so his responsibility to intervene."
Others noted that it was the grandmother who is just full of sour grapes.
"She didn't even just want an apology, she wanted the 5 year old to lie about liking it to her," explained another reader. "That's beyond unacceptable as far as how to treat a child. But the banning the 5 year old part is fine, because it is in the best interest of the child not to interact with her."
Good on this mama for sticking up for her little girl and herself. Hopefully grandmom will see how ridiculous she is being and retract her "banishment" soon.
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