He Told His Kids They Could Hide Out In His Office And Use It As A “Panic Room” Whenever Their Cousins Came Over, But His Wife Was Not Happy About It
Together, this man and his wife have raised three children– who are now 12, 10, and 9-years-old. And honestly, he believes that they are pretty great kids.
On the other hand, he thinks that his wife’s sister and husband went in a different direction with their parenting. Apparently, the couple has three kids who are about the same ages as his children.
Yet, his sister-in-law and brother-in-law do not enforce any rules or use punishments when their children act in a way that he deems “bad behavior.”
So, even though he knows that his kids adore their cousins, his kids also believe that they are brats.
Now, he apparently works from home, and he has an office in the basement that doubles as his gaming room.
“I keep my console collection in there, and we have a PS4 upstairs as well,” he explained.
This essentially means that whenever his sister-in-law’s children come over, his own kids have permission to go into the basement and hide out in their office.
The door to the office has a lock on it, and the entry to the basement also locks. So, he calls it their “panic room.”
Apparently, his wife does not agree with this strategy, though, and believes that he is just teaching their kids to be antisocial.
dream@do – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual children
So, he decided to talk with his children after his wife expressed her concerns. And during that conversation, he told the kids that they could not hide out in his office the next time their cousins visited.
The next time his sister-in-law’s kids did come over, though, he claimed that everything went downhill.
“It was a disaster. I cannot describe everything that happened,” he recalled.
Nonetheless, his wife wound up telling her sister that if she and the cousins were ever going to be allowed over at their house again, then the “kids had better behave or else.”
This pushed his sister-in-law to accuse him of being a jerk for turning his wife against her. And now, he feels like it is impossible for him to win in any scenario.
“If I let the kids hide, I’m the [jerk]. And if I let the kids go crazy with their cousins, I’m the jerk,” he vented.
Plus, even if his wife finally sees that the cousins are little out-of-control monsters and tells her sister to get them under control, he is still the bad guy.
So now, he has been left wondering whether allowing his kids to use his office as a panic room in the first place really made him a jerk or not.
Is it his fault the kids got out of control, or is it his sister-in-law’s responsibility to take accountability for her kids’ actions? At the same time, is hiding out whenever the cousins come over realistic? Or do his own children need to learn conflict resolution? If you were in his shoes, how would you handle this situation?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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