There’s nothing wrong with playing to win. But there’s a difference between competing and taking things too far.

This uncle recently found himself in the middle of that debate after agreeing to play a tennis match against his 12-year-old nephew.

The nephew had only been taking lessons for a few months, but he couldn’t stop talking about making the school team and insisted he was ready for a real match.

So, the uncle decided to treat him exactly like any other opponent. He called every foot fault and every close line call exactly the way he would in a competitive match.

But unfortunately, even after his nephew started getting frustrated, he never eased up.

The whole thing eventually came to a head when the boy burst into tears and his dad stepped in, leaving everyone upset by the end of the day.

Read on to see how it all played out.

AITA for calling foot faults on my 12 year old nephew during a family tennis match?

I (26M) take tennis pretty seriously. I’m not a pro or anything, but I play a lot, and I hate when people just mess around and don’t follow the rules. It just ruins the game.

Last weekend, my brother Dave (34M) and his kid Leo (12M) came over.

Leo started taking tennis lessons like six months ago. He made his middle school team and wouldn’t shut up about it. He kept bragging and saying stuff like, “I could probably beat you now,” and bragging about his topspin.

Wanting to teach his nephew a lesson, he called even the first fault.

Dave said we should go to the local courts so Leo could show off. I said, “Fine, let’s play a real best-out-of-three-sets match.”

Even in the warm-up, I could see Leo was way too cocky. His form was trash, and he was just getting lucky. When we started, I decided I’m not gonna take it easy on him. If you talk big, you gotta play a real match.

First game, Leo is serving. On his second serve, his shoe touched the white line before he hit the ball. I called it right away. “Foot fault. Double fault. My point.”

Leo wasn’t sure what just happened.

Leo looked confused and said he barely touched it. I told him a fault is a fault, and in a real tournament you lose the point. Dave laughed from the bench and said, “Come on, man, give him a break. It’s just for fun.”

I told Dave letting him cheat doesn’t help him learn anything.

So I just played my normal game. I hit my serves full speed and did drop shots, making him run all over. I won the first set 6 to 0. By the second set, Leo was super red and panting and getting mad.

At this point, he wasn’t going to let the child get away with anything.

At 4 to 0 in the second set, Leo hit a crazy forehand down the line. It was close, but from where I was standing, it was definitely out by a tiny bit.

I called it out. “15-love.”

Leo dropped his racket and yelled that it was on the line and I was lying. I walked to the net and said arguing with the caller is a code violation. I told him his sportsmanship sucked and in a real match he would get a penalty for yelling like that.

Now, his brother is upset.

Leo started crying hard. He threw his racket at the fence and just sat down crying.

Dave ran onto the court and got in my face, saying I was a huge jerk. He said I ruined Leo’s confidence and ruined the whole weekend just to boost my ego against a kid.

They packed up and went back to their hotel. We haven’t talked since, but Dave texted me calling me a try-hard loser. I honestly don’t think I did anything wrong. He wanted to be treated like a real player, so I did. I don’t make the rules. I just play by them.

AITA?

Wowzers. That sounds like a pretty harsh way to treat a child.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man whose celebratory post-grad school vacation is being ruined by his family’s insistence he’s being lazy.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about what he did here.

He sure did earn that.

This is very possible.

This reader does not agree with how he treated his nephew.

It sure doesn’t make him the bigger person.

This uncle handled this all wrong.

Sure, teaching kids the rules has value. At the same time, there’s a huge difference between helping a 12-year-old improve and trying to prove a point by treating a family match like a professional tournament.

Maybe his nephew admired him and wanted the chance to play against someone he respected. If so, this probably damaged that relationship in a way that won’t be easy to fix.

Hopefully the uncle learns from this because another tennis match will come along. But rebuilding a child’s trust and respect, on the other hand, usually takes a whole lot longer.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a stepmom who says stepson isn’t doing enough, despite the fact that he’s working 12-hour shifts to pay for his own college.