She Wasn’t Allowed To Read Twilight As A Kid—And She Still Resents Her Mom Years Later
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Parenting is one of the most difficult things you can ever do, and no matter how well you do it, you will never be perfect.
What would you do if, years ago, when your daughter was 11, you didn’t let her watch or read Twilight, and even now as an adult, she is still upset about it?
That is the situation that the mother in this story is in, and now it is even worse since her younger boys were allowed to see a PG13 movie before they were 13, so her daughter is upset.
Personally, I don’t think she really did anything wrong. Limiting what your kids can watch is responsible parenting. Read through the details and see what you think.
AITA for not allowing my oldest child to watch PG13 movies before she turned 13?
This incident happened twelve years ago, but my daughter ‘Stacie’ still brings it up time after time in fights.
I will admit that I was strict on Stacie’s upbringing because she was my first kid and I wanted to do everything by the book. One of these things was not allowing her to watch PG-13 movies when she was underage.
She never had a problem with this rule until Twilight. She was eleven at the time, and while I didn’t allow her to read the books (I agree with Stephen King that it’s just about how important it is to have a boyfriend, and I didn’t want her to read a book about a character as vapid as Bella) she still read them anyway at school.
This is pretty reasonable.
Well, the movie comes out and her friends and one of their moms was going to see it after school. I put my foot down and told Stacie she wasn’t going because 1) she was too young and this was a PG13 movie and
2) I didn’t think it was appropriate for her to watch a teen vampire romance when she is still in elementary school.
I can see why she would be annoyed at this, but honestly, there is nothing wrong with changing the way you parent as you get older.
Stacie was mad, but I thought she had forgotten the issue until 2012.
My ex-husband took her little brothers (nine and eleven) to go see the Dark Knight Rises during his visitation weekend and she gets mad at us because she says it wasn’t fair that her brothers got to watch a PG13 movie when they were underage and she had to wait until she was actually 13 to finally watch them.
I told her that this was a special circumstance and that it was up to the boys’ dad since it was his weekend, even though I didn’t agree with them watching the film in the first place (my ex is not Stacie’s father and my younger son had nightmares about Bane for months afterward).
Like I said, Stacie still holds this against me to this day while I view this as being a responsible parent.
If she is favoring her sons, that is a problem.
Maybe I did favor the boys a bit more, but at the end of the day I was just trying to be a parent.
I may not have been perfect, but at least Stacie turned out well.
AITA?
She was doing what she thought was right. If she has changed her mind since then, she should admit that and maybe apologize, but there is certainly nothing wrong with not letting kids watch certain movies or read certain books.
Let’s take a look at what the people in the comments have to say.
Kids often don’t like strict parents. But parents are just doing their best.
Explaining why she did it might help.
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Yeah, just means parental guidance. And the parent made a choice.
This person thinks she should enforce the same rules on all children. I disagree. Becoming a better parent over time is good.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a DJ who promised to do his sister-in-law’s wedding, but says he’ll back out if she insists on including AI songs.
The eldest child often deals with the worst rules. That is just a part of life.
If she didn’t have double standards, she would have no standards at all. I do agree with a lot of the commenters that it isn’t fair that the younger brothers are able to do so much more. That being said, life isn’t always fair.
She was obviously doing what she thought was best. Her child can complain about that all she wants, but we can all guarantee that when she is a mother, she will make mistakes too.
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