In the high-stakes world of competitive debate, every word counts. But for this young debater, her biggest battle isn’t in the chamber, but at home.

After telling her family about a huge achievement, they dismiss her, instead praising her brother for something way less impressive.

When she confronts them about it, another debate begins.

Read on for the full story!

AITA for telling my parents they don’t celebrate my achievements and it feels like they aren’t proud of me?

I (15f) have been doing debating for my school this year.

She and her team have been doing extraordinarily well.

We beat out 50 teams and managed to get into quarter finals, and then the semi finals.

Today, we had the semi finals. It went for 1.5 hours and it was a really good debate. Fortunately, my team managed to come out on top.

The next step will see them debate at a very prestigious location.

Now, we are in the finals, and we’ve been told it is going to be held at Parliament.

We’re going to be debating in the Debate Chamber, where elections are held and decisions are made.

This is one of, if not my greatest, achievement.

She goes to share the news with her parents, but doesn’t get the reaction she was expecting.

I came home to tell my parents, and they said “cool.” And then started talking to my older brother about how he did his PE assignment, and how proud they are of him.

He did a compulsory assignment and he gets all the praise in the world.

I get to debate in the same place our Prime Minister is decided, and I get a “cool.”

“Cool” doesn’t quite cover the magnitude of what she’s accomplished.

I’ve only been debating for 6 months, as has my whole team.

We’ve beat 50 teams and have accomplished a huge thing and my parents don’t care.

She pushes them on it, but they refuse to hear it.

So I said so. I told them they don’t value my achievements and my brother is always praised for things that don’t need praising.

They got mad at me for ‘disrespecting’ them and now won’t talk to me.

I feel like I just want to be appreciated and no matter how many times I’ve told them that, they just don’t care.

AITA?

What an awful feeling to feel dismissed by your family.

Reddit chimes in with their thoughts.

Instead of giving their daughter the opportunity to show off her debate skills, they just shut down the conversation completely.

This redditor suggests that maybe the timing just wasn’t right.

This empathetic commenter shares their similar experience.

Her parents definitely aren’t acting like the adults here.

This redditor wants to make sure she doesn’t discount her accomplishments just because her parents don’t appreciate them.

Not only has she achieved something great, she’s done it largely without the support of those around her.

Her accomplishments deserve a much bigger and more loving reaction.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.