Every person is a little different and as such, a style of parenting that works in one family may come across as completely baffling to another.
And as you may have come across yourself, major differences between parenting styles can often result in some heated debates online.
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But while interactions with strangers who insist their way is the right way can certainly be annoying, it’s undoubtedly more frustrating when this pushback is coming from the child’s other parent.
This can often take the form of who gets to be the “fun” parent and who has to be the serious one, but friction can also form over whether a certain decision is right for them or not.
And as we can see in one story, even issues of this nature that sound fairly minor can lead to some big fights.
The woman we’re about to hear from shares an eight-year-old son with her husband and as is often the case, they’re finding it exhausting to be new parents.
As she explained in a Reddit post, her husband is a very involved parent, but she feels he can be clueless regarding their son’s care at times.
As such, they have it worked out that she handles feeding, changing, and bathing their son while he plays a more supportive cleaning role.
So she was treated to quite a surprise after she went out to buy groceries recently.
As she put it, “I came back an hour later and once I entered the apartment I heard my son cry loudly.”
Apparently, this was because the husband was trying to place the boy in the kitchen sink to give him a bath, which he apparently didn’t feel like having.
But for her, that wasn’t the problem. Part of the issue had to do with nearby glasses and sharp tools, but she also thought it was “gross” to bathe a child in the sink.
As a result, she told him this wasn’t his job in the first place and that he’s been banned from doing it again.
In her words, “He threw a fit saying I’m treating him as less of a parent than me and dictating how he bonds with our son.”
He went on to say that she was being controlling and selfish by not letting him do his fair share of their son’s care, while she said that his attitude wasn’t in their son’s best interest.
As he is clearly still upset about this matter, the woman has since started wondering whether she was too hard on him.
And Reddit’s answer was a resounding “yes” followed by dozens of confirmations that they had been bathed in the sink as infants.
As one user said , “Did you actually read this back to yourself? Kids have bathed in sinks forever. What’s the issue here? If it’s clean and his dad is giving him a bath what is your actual problem?”
Another accused the woman of gatekeeping parenting, saying , “You aren’t the only one who can parent, including caring for your child’s hygiene needs. Would you rather your husband let baby sit in mess, potentially affecting skin and well-being?”
Both recommended apologizing to her husband and while the woman didn’t say she had done that, she did acknowledge that she now understands why he used the sink.
h/t: Reddit | MammaBearit33
