It’s rare for parents to completely agree on how to discipline and teach their kids. So what happens when a surprise situation calls for a joint effort?

In this story, a woman shares how she disagrees that her son should be punished for defending himself after being accused of stealing a bike, but her husband thinks he should just obey.

Now she’s wondering if her opinion is wrong.

Let’s read the whole story and the comments.

AITAH for telling my husband I’d rather raise a kid who stands up for themselves than one who blindly obeys?

I’m 32F, my husband is 31M. We have a 6-year-old son, Leo.

He’s a sweet, curious kid who’s really into dinosaurs and loves riding his little blue bike.

Last weekend, I went grocery shopping while my husband stayed home with Leo.

Apparently, Leo was outside riding his bike and left it in the front yard while he went inside to get water.

A few minutes later, our neighbor, Ms. Robert, came over saying her grandson (8M) saw Leo take his bike.

But it was her words against Leo’s.

My husband looked out, didn’t see Leo’s bike, and assumed the worst.

He confronted Leo, who insisted he didn’t steal anything. He said his bike was gone.

My husband didn’t believe him and told him he was grounded, no TV, no tablet until he told the truth and apologized.

Leo refused, saying, “I didn’t take anyone’s bike! Why are you punishing me when I didn’t do anything?”

It turns out Leo hadn’t done anything wrong.

Later that afternoon, Ms. Robert returned, visibly embarrassed.

Turns out her grandson had taken Leo’s bike to the park because he thought it looked cooler.

He made the whole story up to avoid getting in trouble.

When I got home, my husband explained the situation. I figured, “Okay, you’ll apologize to Leo and this will be a learning moment.”

He thought Leo still could learn something from the situation.

But nope he doubled down. He said Leo still needed to be punished for “disrespect” and “refusing to obey.”

I said, “So you want to punish him for telling the truth and standing up for himself?”

He said, “It’s the principle. He needs to listen, even when he doesn’t agree.”

But she disagrees.

And I said, “I’d rather raise a boy who knows how to stand up for himself than one who just lays down and accepts mistreatment. Especially when he’s innocent.”

We got into a pretty heated argument.

He says I’m being unreasonable and dramatic and undermining him as a parent.

But I don’t think I’m wrong for wanting to teach my son that it’s okay to say no when something is unfair, even if it’s coming from a parent.

AITA?

I’m with the mom and Leo – he didn’t do anything wrong and knew how to defend himself.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

A reasonable opinion.

Yikes.

Simple like that.

Food for thought.

That was just wrong.

He’s undermining his son’s confidence.

The dad owes Leo an apology.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.