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Parenting

14th Oct 2021

Mum punishes daughter after she admits she doesn’t want to attend prom

Kat O'Connor

“Leave your poor kid alone”

All teenagers are different.

Some are outgoing, some are shy and some are a little bit of both.

And do you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that.

However, one mum thought her daughter’s shyness was a problem and flipped out when she admitted she didn’t want to attend her prom.

The mum said she should be more like her older sisters, who are the “social butterflies” of the family.

The mum explained she has three daughters aged 21, 19 and 16.

Her youngest daughter isn’t as social as her big sisters, the mum confirmed on Reddit.

“May and Jessica were social butterflies in high school, they had lots of friends and were very well know. Diana on the other hand, has had the same 5-person group of friends since middle school and spend most of their time playing videogames.”

The mum said her youngest daughter is more on the “geek-side” compared to her eldest children.

She explained that she is “concerned” about her daughter because apparently “teenage years are a lot about being social and adventurous and even without this global situation she chooses to stay indoors”.

Diana’s mum was furious when her daughter said she wasn’t excited about a Halloween dance taking place at the school.

“I imagine she’d be excited for her first dance, but she just isn’t and yesterday she told us that the day of the dance Friday 29th, she and her friends plan to participate in a local league of legends tournament, this made me angry. She literally has all the time in the world for videogames but a limited amount of high school events.”

“She’s just ditching them for irrelevant videogame tournaments. I usually try to be supportive of her hobbies, but this crossed the line and I told her she couldn’t go to the tournament and if she didn’t go to the dance,” the mum revealed.

Surely the video game tournament is important Diana. It’s something that makes her happy so what harm is she doing?

Her mum said she won’t let her out that day or play videogames for the weekend if she refuses to go to the dance.

Diana told her mum she just preferred other activities. However, the mum isn’t budging: “I stand firm in my punishment if she at least doesn’t give it a chance. Like I said, my girl is as beautiful as her sisters I’m sure she wouldn’t have a difficult time making friends, she doesn’t have anything to be insecure about.”

She wants her youngest to be just like her older daughters who started prepping for their school dances in September.

“I would drive them around and help them in any way possible to prepare I wouldn’t call it a tradition but it’s a moment that’s also important for me to have with my daughter.”

The woman’s husband said she was acting horribly and said their daughter shouldn’t have to go if she didn’t want to.

The mum asked, “What if she regrets not going when she’s older? she can always play video games, but time won’t stop and she won’t be in high school much longer.”

Naturally, most people called out the mum for expecting her daughter to be just like everyone else.

Her differences should be celebrated rather than shamed.

One user said: “There’s nothing wrong with having a small group of close knit friends; as an adult that’s my dream.”

“That whole ‘I know she could make friends’. She has friends. 5 close friends. And those friendships are probably a lot more deep and long lasting than any she would make being a social butterfly. Leave your poor kid alone and let her do the kind of stuff SHE is interested in,” one added.

“My mom made me think there was something wrong with me for being introverted and nerdy. At 30f, I still have problems accepting myself because every time I see her, she has another way to criticize me when there’s literally nothing wrong with me,” another added.

Do you think the mum was completely out of line or can you empathise with her?