He Deliberately Taunted Their Two-Year-Old Until She Broke Down—Then Claimed Over-Stimulation and Stress Tests Are “Building Emotional Resilience”
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There’s a big difference between helping a child learn how to handle emotions and purposely upsetting them.
One mom is starting to question her partner’s parenting after noticing how differently their two-year-old acts when he’s around.
He believes that purposely getting a reaction out of people teaches them to regulate their emotions, and apparently, that includes their daughter.
One day at the pool, he kept splashing her in the face even though she was screaming for him to stop. When the little girl became upset and clung to her mom, he called her a brat and insisted she needed to learn how to deal with it.
And after realizing he does the same thing to her when she’s upset, the mom is starting to wonder if this behavior is normal at all.
Keep reading for the full story.
AITAH for trying to correct my partners parenting style?
My (25F) partner (29M) has his own way of parenting, which I’ve tried to respect, but I can’t tell if it’s bothering me because of my mom instincts, and I just don’t want my daughter (2Y) to be upset.
My partner loves to rage bait people, even me. It’s his favorite hobby ever, but he takes it to the extent of saying it’s necessary for emotional development.
An example would be we could be swimming in the pool, she’s sitting on the steps enjoying herself, and he just continuously splashes her in the face or wets her as she’s screaming for him to stop, and suddenly she wants to be clung to me and isn’t having fun anymore.
She’s already tried to reason with him once.
I tell him to stop because we’re here having fun, but he says she needs to stop being a brat.
Mind you, she is in the phase of saying “no” a lot, which is normal at this age, but besides that, she is the most amazing baby I could’ve asked for. She’s so sweet, cleans up after herself, always wants to help. No part of me sees a brat when we’re alone, but when he’s around, she instantly shuts down and becomes reactive. I notice it.
I try to tell him that she should feel safe with him instead of not wanting to be near him because she knows he’s just gonna **** her off.
Apparently, he does the same thing to her.
He’s done the same to me, where I was having a complete breakdown one day, and he followed right behind my steps as I kept asking him to leave me alone, chasing me back and forth, saying I needed this to learn how to regulate my emotions.
Mind you, I was just crying because something had upset me, and when he shoved a finger in my face to annoy me more, I pushed it, ultimately bending it back slightly, and to this day he still talks about how unacceptable and abusive that was.
Is this normal behavior? How can I stop it or discuss?
AITA?
Eek. This guy sounds like he still a lot of growing up left to do.
Let’s see what Reddit readers have to say about his behavior.
This person thinks she needs to lay down the law.
This reader calls him the brat.
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She should really think about this.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about siblings who don’t think they should have to give up their own sports’ seasons to help with their younger siblings.
For this reader, that’s not a parenting style at all.
This sounds like way more than rage baiting.
If a two-year-old is screaming for him to stop and clinging to her mom afterward, he’s not teaching emotional regulation. He’s teaching her that saying no doesn’t matter.
The fact that he does the same thing to her when she’s upset makes it even more concerning.
She needs to put a stop to this before their daughter starts thinking this is how someone who loves her is supposed to act.
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