When a group of young boys came over and their odor filled the house, the dad stayed silent, figuring their parents would address the issue.

However, when his son refused to use deodorant and got picked on for it, the dad didn’t intervene, believing the embarrassment would be a good lesson.

Now, he’s starting to wonder if that was the right thing to do.

Was it? Read on for the story.

AITA for not saying anything when my son was being picked on?

My 10yo son Dylan is a bit abrasive with his friends but is very fun to be around.

We’re lucky enough to have a lot of families on our block with classmates of Dylan.

A couple of days ago, he had a few of his friends over and they all reeked.

I didn’t say anything because I knew their parents would the minute they came home and would fix it.

Nothing like a bunch of stinky pre-teens in your house.

I told Dylan he needed to start using deodorant and he said he really didn’t.

I said yes you do and I’ll put some on you if you don’t.

Today he was outside wrestling with his friends and didn’t put any deodorant on.

His friends told him he smelled and to go back inside.

They lobbed insults at each other and Dylan came inside crying.

Oh, puberty.

I later told him that it was his fault for not putting on deodorant and your friends weren’t wrong.

He asked why I didn’t tell his friends to stop picking on him and I said because I knew it would hurt you enough to where you’d put deodorant on.

He said I was a mean dad.

Geez. Nothing like tears and hurt feelings to reveal that Dad’s plan to let him face the consequences didn’t quite go as hoped.

Most of Reddit (probably the Reddit that are parents to pre-teens) is on Dad’s side.

This person is pretty understanding of the whole thing.

And this person thinks he handled it in the best way he could.

But this one has a few choice words for Dad.

Hmmm…

Looks like Dad thought tough love meant letting his son sweat it out—literally.

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