Growing up is hard enough without having to navigate adults who just don’t understand your interests.

When one stepmom tries to force her book-loving stepchild out of her shell, her big brother comes to her defense, but it only deepened tensions.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for telling my stepmum that she can’t take my sister to soccer?

So I (M, 18) have a little sister (F, 9) who’s a real bookworm and often feels left out at school because she’s usually seen reading rather than playing with other kids her age.

I know that she doesn’t really do anything sports-wise other than swimming.

Because of this, his sister has a pretty tough time at school.

So, I often find my sister knocking on my door and crying to me about getting bullied.

She’s really shy and often cannot stand up to them, so this is a common scenario. I feel really bad that I can’t do much to help her.

So their stepmother starts overstepping her bounds.

It turns out that this time my stepmum overheard, and a few days later, she enrolled my sister in soccer for the new term. There is a program for it at her school.

In his eyes, this is the exact opposite of what his sister needs.

Even though she knows my sister HATES soccer and that if she does it at school, she’ll only get bullied more. (We know because we tried something similar last year.)

I went to talk to her and told her that she can’t enroll my sister in something she’s not comfortable with.

His stepmom has some pretty hurtful things to say in response.

But she told me, and I’m quoting her here, “She can’t hide behind books forever” and “She needs to be normal.”

She argued that she is her stepmum and has some liberty over the choices for her stepchild.

His stepmom thinks he should just stay out of it altogether.

She also said I shouldn’t get caught between the choices she makes for my sister.

AITA?

His defense may not have changed his stepmother’s mind, but at least it reminded his sister that she wasn’t alone.

What did Reddit think?

Everyone deserves to have someone in their corner – especially someone who’s 9.

Her daughter’s love of reading should be encouraged, not shamed!

This user sees right through the stepmother’s façade.

But maybe the stepmother is onto something?

Sometimes protecting someone means going against those who think they know best.

You should love your family for who they are — not who they could be.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.