Teen years can be tough, especially when a big family move turns everything upside down.

What would you do if your teenage son begged to move back to his old town to live with his grandparents so that he could feel settled and happy again? Would you let him go? Or would you hold firm to keep your family under one roof?

In the following story, a mother faces this heartbreaking decision when her 16-year-old insists on moving out. Here’s what’s going on.

AITA for not letting my son move in with his grandparents even though he wants to?

My family recently moved from Louisiana to Mississippi because my husband got transferred for work.

We bought a three-bedroom house, which is convenient since it’s closer to my parents. My kids are 16 (M), 15 (F), and 12 (M), so my two sons have to share a room.

Since the move, my 16-year-old has been really unhappy about sharing a room with his younger brother.

When school started in August, he started spending a lot of time at the park after school instead of coming straight home. It’s about three miles from our house, and he sometimes stayed there for several hours.

His grandparents said he could stay with them.

We asked him to come home right after school because we were worried about him being out for so long. He eventually started coming home more often, but it seemed to frustrate him even more.

Lately, he’s been distant and moody. He often refuses to talk to me or my husband, and he gets irritated when his younger brother tries to interact with him. He’s told us multiple times that he doesn’t like our house, our neighborhood, or his current school.

Recently, my husband’s parents offered to let him stay with them for the second semester of his junior year and his entire senior year. He wants to go back to his old school to be with his friends and play in the band again.

We understand why he wants it, but we don’t feel comfortable being away from him for that long, and my husband agrees.

At this point, they don’t know what to do.

Things escalated when he called us selfish and said we ruined everything for him. He told us we were condescending and didn’t treat him like a person. He kept saying he deserves to be happy and that we’ve taken everything that made him happy away from him. He also said we’re making him hate his life more by not letting him go.

We suggested therapy, and that made him even more furious. He said we were trying to call him crazy now on top of everything else.

It’s been nine days since this all started, and he’s been crying often. He lashes out more when we try to comfort him, or even when his sister or brother interacts with him. Sometimes he just stays in the backyard for long periods of time alone.

My husband and I honestly don’t know what the best option is anymore. Would allowing him to move in be the better option? We don’t want him to resent us.

AITA?

Wow! It’s easy to see both sides of this, but letting him stay miserable like that is not an option.

Let’s check out what the readers over at Reddit think they should do.

For this reader, the parents are failing their son.

Here’s another person who thinks they’re wrong for this.

According to this comment, not letting him move may affect their future relationship.

This could be true.

She needs to rethink this. There should be ways to let him live with his grandparents and still get to see him. That’s better than the alternative.

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