Recently, a person took to Reddit to ask whether he was wrong for telling his SIL not to put her thoughts on life and death into his son’s head. Let’s take a look at the full story.
Differing Beliefs
The Original Poster (OP), aged 55, and his wife, aged 43, live together with their children. They live in the same city as OP’s sister, Margot, her wife, Alexandra, and their two children, 7 and 4 years old.
OP and his family are devout Christians, but his sister and her wife are atheists. They all genuinely care about each other, and their beliefs have no impact at all on their connection.
His 14-year-old son loves his cousins and always requests to visit his aunts. OP sends him over very frequently, around once a week, after Margot says it’s okay.
Regular Visits
Everything was going well till his son started saying things about life and beliefs that were remarkably close to what Alexandra would say about most things.
OP’s son has a great deal of respect for Alexandra, who is a surgeon. Because of this, his son is particularly influenced by her opinions. He looks up to his aunt as a person who knows a lot about things.
At dinner, OP’s son started to sway family opinions by saying contradictory ideas.
His Son Started Being Contradictory
As a result, OP became a bit distressed, and he informed Alexandra that his son was being influenced by her. He asked her to give his son some space so he could figure out his beliefs on his own.
As a response to OP, Alexandra assured him that additional knowledge would be beneficial and that, regardless of his beliefs, he was a bright young boy who would make a wonderful adult.
OP begged her not to bring up these topics with him, but she became enraged and said that OP was overbearing. She said that she would let his son decide the topics of their conversations as long as he was permitted to visit.
He Asked Them to Back Off
Both Margot and Alexandra have been cold towards OP since this incident.
Now, OP is left wondering if he was wrong for calling and saying those things to his SIL.
The Reddit thread received hundreds of comments voicing their opinions.
Many Redditors stated that OP was wrong and that he was being controlling,g and he is like most parents who think their children are being ‘unduly influenced’ and ‘brainwashed’ by everyone else.
He Is Being Controlling
One comment read, “All I see here is a parent wanting to control what his son learns and that is not what those nasty atheists can tell him. If you cut your kid off from someone he looks up to it won’t stop him asking questions or even Google his answers but what it will do is put a wedge between you both. Got to give it to organized religion, the only way is our way and we cut you off from anything else.”
Another Redditor wrote that the son will ultimately decide whether his opinions make sense to him or not. Or he might decide they make sense now and change his mind later.
A third Reddit user commented, “14 years is old enough for him to start forming his own opinions. He’s branching out and asking questions that you won’t or can’t answer. That’s ok. My brother-in-law is an atheist too, and he is allowed his own opinions. I’m not hiding who he is from my son.”
It’s understandable that OP would be concerned about his son’s exposure to ideas that contradict his faith.
So what do you think? Did OP do the right thing?
The post He Told His Sister-In-Law Not to Put Her Non-christian Ideas Into His Son’s Head! first appeared on Wealthy Living
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Tiko Aramyan. The people shown in the images are for illustrative purposes only, not the actual people featured in the story.
Source: Reddit