June 19, 2025 at 11:15 am

Adult Woman Offered Hello Kitty Tissues To Her Friend’s Teenage Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Friend Got Upset And Claimed She Was Infantilizing Her

by Michael Levanduski

Hello Kitty store

Shutterstock, Reddit

Cartoon characters may be made for kids, but adults often fall in love with them as well.

What would you do if you had tissues with Hello Kitty logos on them because you liked them, but then, when you offered them to a friend’s child who has Down’s Syndrome, your friend got upset because you were ‘infantilizing’ her child?

That is what happened to the woman in this story, and now she is worried she did something wrong.

Check it out and see what you think.

AITAH for offering Hello Kitty tissues to my friend’s daughter?

My (40F) friend Kate (40F) has an 18 year old daughter Nancy.

Nancy has Down Syndrome (this will be important later.)

Last month, I took a trip to Japan, and when I was there, I ended up finding pocket packs of Kleenex tissues printed with Sanrio characters (ie Hello Kitty).

They sound cute.

I ended up buying several packs of these tissues for myself, partly because they’re convenient to have, and because I couldn’t resist how cute they are.

I’ve been keeping the tissue packs in my purse and my car, and I honestly love how cute and fun they are.

Onto the story:

People get upset, no big deal.

Last weekend, I went out with Kate and Nancy just to hang out and catch up with each other.

I don’t want to go into too much detail, but while we were out, something happened that upset Nancy and she started crying.

Kate didn’t have any tissues on her, so I pulled out the pack of Hello Kitty Kleenex I had in my purse and offered them to Nancy.

Things seemed fine.

Nancy commented that the tissues were cute, blew her nose, and we were able to continue our day without incident.

What? She didn’t even give her entire packs of them, just enough to use in the moment.

Later, Kate confronted me and accused me of infantilizing and demeaning her teenage daughter by giving her something so childish.

She told me that by giving Nancy tissues printed with a children’s cartoon character showed that I don’t respect her as an adult just because she’s disabled.

She called me ableist and disrespectful.

That was honestly never my intention.

I bought the Hello Kitty tissues for myself because I loved them and thought they were cute.

The only reason I offered them to Nancy was because she was crying and didn’t have any tissues on her.

Of course not, the mother is way out of line here.

I truly had no intention to demean or insult her in any way.

It’s been almost a week and Kate is still being icy towards me.

AITA?

The mother is just overly sensitive about people ‘infantilizing’ her daughter, likely because it legitimately does happen. But this was not the case here.

Let’s see what the people in the comments say about it.

Here is someone else who has an adult friend who loves Hello Kitty.

Comment 5 63 Adult Woman Offered Hello Kitty Tissues To Her Friends Teenage Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Friend Got Upset And Claimed She Was Infantilizing Her

This commenter thinks Kate was out of line.

Comment 4 68 Adult Woman Offered Hello Kitty Tissues To Her Friends Teenage Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Friend Got Upset And Claimed She Was Infantilizing Her

This commenter says to give the friend a chance to calm down.

Comment 3 81 Adult Woman Offered Hello Kitty Tissues To Her Friends Teenage Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Friend Got Upset And Claimed She Was Infantilizing Her

Yeah, mom is just looking for a reason to be offended.

Comment 2 81 Adult Woman Offered Hello Kitty Tissues To Her Friends Teenage Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Friend Got Upset And Claimed She Was Infantilizing Her

The tissues weren’t even purchased for Nancy.

Comment 1 81 Adult Woman Offered Hello Kitty Tissues To Her Friends Teenage Child With Down Syndrome, But Her Friend Got Upset And Claimed She Was Infantilizing Her

Parents can be overly sensitive about their children, especially when they are disabled.

I’d give the mom a chance to calm down and then explain that the tissues weren’t even meant for Nancy.

Hopefully, she will realize that she overreacted.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.