Grandparents make an attempt to teach grandkids a lesson over Christmas, sparks debate

Christmas is the best time of the year, but what if someone told you that Christmas was canceled, just for you? Heartbreaking, isn't it? You'd maybe think that there'd be a good reason for it, right? One such grandmother u/mshe20120 took to Reddit to ascertain if she was wrong to have threatened her grandkids from getting their Christmas gifts.

She begins the story by saying that she and her husband have three kids and seven grandkids. Her youngest son whose name is Merlin, has two kids, Townes and Emaline who are both 13 years old and twins. She fondly mentioned how she and her husband love seeing their big family as often as possible because they love them. Talking about the grandkids, she says that Townes is a sporty and sensitive little boy while Emaline is a beautiful artist. She says, "As you may be able to tell, we love to support our grandkids' passions and interests in any way possible." Talking about Christmas, she says how they host Christmas breakfast every year. The whole gift-giving and opening session always happens in the couple's home. This year, the kids and grandkids came over to help the couple decorate their tree.

While prepping for dinner, Merlin and his wife jokingly mentioned how the twins would probably be on the naughty list this year. When asked about it, they said that the kids had been having some trouble at school. When the grandparents pushed and asked more about it, the parents said what happened. Townes got into trouble for stealing snacks. He was selling the snacks a friend he met on vacation was sending him as souvenirs. Despite him doing this with his friend's permission, it understandably went against school policies. For this, he got 2 days of detention as well as a lecture from a coach who was quite disappointed in Townes. What Emaline did, however, wasn't exactly spoken about. She said that she was being "unfairly bullied" at school, for what she did. Hearing all of this, Townes seemed overwhelmed which is why the user asked him if he needed to speak to someone.

To that, the little boy said he wanted to speak to his grandmother. Townes told his grandmother that Emaline had said some racist things to a Hispanic boy as well as made jokes about his culture and heritage. That behavior got her suspended for 3 days. Knowing about this, the grandparents chose to talk to Merlin about their concerns concerning Emaline's behavior. To their surprise, their son dismissed them and in fact, asked them to focus on Townes instead. So the grandparents gave Merlin a warning saying that unless he took some substantial action against Emaline, they'd have not to give her her Christmas present.

However, when Merlin spoke to his wife about it - they both seemed quite uncomfortable. When they got back to their home, they said that the grandparents were overstepping their boundaries and that Merlin and his wife knew how to deal with their kids. So, the grandparents took to Reddit to find out if they were in the wrong. However, the views were quite contrasting. While u/goodrobloxforkids said, "YTA. It’s not your place to decide how to parent your grandchildren. You can have an opinion and you’re welcome to voice that opinion but you’ve overstepped here. If you don’t want to buy gifts, that’s on you but threatening to not get gifts unless they do what you say is out of line." Another reader u/an0nym0uswr1ter said, "NTA. Nope, Racism is not okay and at that young age you know if unchecked it's just going to get worse. I don't care if it's overstepping, supporting a racist child is just not right. There's enough hate in the world." Either way, we hope the kids learn to be better.