News

<h2>Everyone wants to feel special...</h2><p>While we&#39;re mostly beyond the &quot;everyone on the soccer team gets a trophy because we&#39;re all unique snowflakes&quot; phase of raising children, we are <em>technically</em> all unique snowflakes! Our differences deserve to be celebrated and it&#39;s true that there are no two humans who are exactly alike. That being said, we aren&#39;t all &quot;gifted&quot; per se. Sorry, but your kid&#39;s finger painting probably isn&#39;t going to be a put in a museum. We aren&#39;t all human calculators who can see landscapes in geometric proofs and most of us won&#39;t sell out arenas at 15.</p><p>All parents want what is best for their children and supporting a child&#39;s dreams is a great start. Maybe your kid isn&#39;t a prodigy or a genius but they can be a genius to <em>you!</em> It can get pretty awkward, though, when parents feel the need to use their children&#39;s skills to compete with other parents as some sort of catty competition in who raised the &quot;most impressive&quot; kid. Chances are, if your kid is a prodigy you had very little to do with it.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>So, when a recent <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/elawpx/aita_for_telling_my_sister_that_her_daughter_was/">Reddit </a>user asked a question in the &quot;Am I the As*hole?&quot; section of Reddit about his &quot;gifted&quot; son and his &quot;ordinary&quot; niece, the internet was ready to weigh in...</p><h1>AITA For telling my sister that her daughter was not special, but instead was ordinary?<figure class="image"><div class="image-container"><img alt="" onload="(__markFirstPostVisible || function(){})();" src="https://www.redditstatic.com/desktop2x/img/renderTimingPixel.png" /></div></figure></h1><blockquote> <p>Some context is definitely needed here. I&#39;m 33(M), and my sister is 36. She has one child (14F). I have one son (13). It is also important to add that I am a single father - my wife passed when my son was 7.</p> <p>My son is quite gifted (I do not say this lightly). He tops all of his classes and often wins mathematics competitions in our state. I do not tell my sister this on account of me not wanting to seem like I&#39;m bragging or anything - my son&#39;s achievements are his and his alone - I just provide him with the love and affection he is entitled to.</p> <p>So yesterday, my family had a gathering dinner. At previous gatherings, my sister likes to demonstrate how &#39;special&#39; and praiseworthy her daughter was for quite ridiculous achievements - such as winning &#39;best dressed&#39; at her school dance.</p> <p>This gathering, she really made me mad. Not only did she tell everyone the usual so-called achievements of her daughter, but she also targeted my son in front of him. She said, with the entire family present, that I wish my son was as gifted as her daughter. Her daughter proceeded to join in and call my son, who is quite shy, a loser.</p> <p>I then told her that her daughter was not special at all and that her achievements were absolutely nothing and meant nothing to anyone except for her. She left the table crying.</p> <p>I was then called an asshole by those remaining on the table. AITA?</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>This one is tough. While it was 100% wrong for his sister to shame his son in front of him and directly compare her daughter to her brother&#39;s son, he probably didn&#39;t also have to make her cry and say her daughter wasn&#39;t special. Families are complicated!</p><h2>&quot;that--kitkat&quot; wrote:</h2><blockquote> <p>Jesus Christ how old are you? 5? Tell your sister to stop bullying your kid, but don&#39;t degrade another kid in the process. You both obviously value different things and that&#39;s fine, but neither of you should be taking away from the others kid.</p> <p> </p> </blockquote><h2>&quot;Winkerman1919&quot; wrote:</h2><blockquote> <p>The daughter is 14 and she bullied her younger cousin. Bullying is never okay and she got a taste of her medicine. OP should not have stooped to their level, but I feel no sympathy for the daughter. If she were 8 or 9, it&rsquo;s a different story. At 14, kids have a certain degree of reason and she needs to learn that bullying is unacceptable</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>&quot;RedditDK2&quot; wrote:</h2><blockquote> <p>- obviously your sister was TA for belittling your son. However you then turned around and did the same to her daughter, which is just as bad. Instead of knocking down the daughter (your niece) why didn&#39;t you just praise your son by telling them about his very real accomplishments?</p> </blockquote><h2>&quot;XXmillenniumXX&quot; wrote:</h2><blockquote> <p>You could have stood up for your son without bashing the daughter.</p> </blockquote><h2>&quot;mllff&quot; wrote:</h2><blockquote> <p>I get that your niece was a brat but it&#39;s clear that she is only 14 and learned that behavior. You all suck for insulting teenagers in front of them.</p> </blockquote><p>So there you have it! Looks like everyone was at fault in this situation. Don&#39;t insult someone with the exact method you&#39;re insulted by--especially when it involves children.</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Father of 'gifted' son asks if he's wrong to tell his sister that her daughter 'isn't special.'

Everyone wants to feel special...While we&#39;re mostly beyond the &quot;everyone on the soccer team gets a trophy because we&#39;re all unique snowflakes&quot; phase of raising children, we are technically all unique snowflakes! Our differences deserve to be celebrated and it&#39;s true that there are no two humans who are exactly alike. That being said, we aren&#39;t all &quot;gifted&quot; per se. Sorry, but your kid&#39;s finger painting probably isn&#39;t going to be a put in a museum. We aren&#39;t all human calculators who can see landscapes in geometric proofs and most of us won&#39;t sell out arenas at 15.All parents want what is best for their children and supporting a child&#39;s dreams is a great start. Maybe your kid isn&#39;t a prodigy or a genius but they can be a genius to you! It can get pretty awkward, though, when parents feel the need to use their children&#39;s skills to compete with other parents as some sort of catty competition in who raised the &quot;most impressive&quot; kid. Chances are, if your kid is a prodigy you had very little to do with it.So, when a recent Reddit user asked a question in the &quot;Am I the As*hole?&quot; section of Reddit about his &quot;gifted&quot; son and his &quot;ordinary&quot; niece, the internet was ready to weigh in...AITA For telling my sister that her daughter was not special, but instead was ordinary? Some context is definitely needed here. I&#39;m 33(M), and my sister is 36. She has one child (14F). I have one son (13). It is also important to add that I am a single father - my wife passed when my son was 7. My son is quite gifted (I do not say this lightly). He tops all of his classes and often wins mathematics competitions in our state. I do not tell my sister this on account of me not wanting to seem like I&#39;m bragging or anything - my son&#39;s achievements are his and his alone - I just provide him with the love and affection he is entitled to. So yesterday, my family had a gathering dinner. At previous gatherings, my sister likes to demonstrate how &#39;special&#39; and praiseworthy her daughter was for quite ridiculous achievements - such as winning &#39;best dressed&#39; at her school dance. This gathering, she really made me mad. Not only did she tell everyone the usual so-called achievements of her daughter, but she also targeted my son in front of him. She said, with the entire family present, that I wish my son was as gifted as her daughter. Her daughter proceeded to join in and call my son, who is quite shy, a loser. I then told her that her daughter was not special at all and that her achievements were absolutely nothing and meant nothing to anyone except for her. She left the table crying. I was then called an asshole by those remaining on the table. AITA? This one is tough. While it was 100% wrong for his sister to shame his son in front of him and directly compare her daughter to her brother&#39;s son, he probably didn&#39;t also have to make her cry and say her daughter wasn&#39;t special. Families are complicated!&quot;that--kitkat&quot; wrote: Jesus Christ how old are you? 5? Tell your sister to stop bullying your kid, but don&#39;t degrade another kid in the process. You both obviously value different things and that&#39;s fine, but neither of you should be taking away from the others kid.   &quot;Winkerman1919&quot; wrote: The daughter is 14 and she bullied her younger cousin. Bullying is never okay and she got a taste of her medicine. OP should not have stooped to their level, but I feel no sympathy for the daughter. If she were 8 or 9, it&rsquo;s a different story. At 14, kids have a certain degree of reason and she needs to learn that bullying is unacceptable &quot;RedditDK2&quot; wrote: - obviously your sister was TA for belittling your son. However you then turned around and did the same to her daughter, which is just as bad. Instead of knocking down the daughter (your niece) why didn&#39;t you just praise your son by telling them about his very real accomplishments? &quot;XXmillenniumXX&quot; wrote: You could have stood up for your son without bashing the daughter. &quot;mllff&quot; wrote: I get that your niece was a brat but it&#39;s clear that she is only 14 and learned that behavior. You all suck for insulting teenagers in front of them. So there you have it! Looks like everyone was at fault in this situation. Don&#39;t insult someone with the exact method you&#39;re insulted by--especially when it involves children.

Everyone wants to feel special...  While we&#39;re mostly beyond the &quot;everyone on the soccer team gets a trophy because we&#39;re all unique snowflakes&quot; phase of raising children, we are technically all unique snowflakes! Our...