Man reveals he wants to leave his wife for her 'irrational' parenting style, sparking debate

As we scroll through the internet, we often encounter various parenting styles embraced by new parents. While gentle parenting is becoming more popular, one man took to Reddit to express concerns about his wife’s approach to raising their children. Tensions have escalated, and the man has now warned his wife that if she doesn’t change her ways, their family could be at risk. A re-post on the r/AITA subreddit shared the story of u/footdownytaornta, who has been married to the mother of his kids.

When they got married, the couple had a long discussion about raising their children. "I was excited to be an equally involved father and ended up being a SAHD after she went back to work following two years of maternity leave. She had two years SAHM, I had three as an SAHD and then she went part-time when our twins were in preschool and kindergarten," the husband wrote. They had always agreed to practice authoritative parenting and treat their kids with kindness and respect. They wanted their children to feel safe while confiding in their parents. Now, their twins are 16-year-old and both are proud of how they raised them.

"However, like all people, they aren't without flaws and sometimes there is friction. Lately, my daughter has been wanting more independence. My wife and I originally agreed that we knew from our upbringings that being extra strict doesn't always work and if there are things to rebel against, then kids will rebel so we've tried instead to be collaborative," the post continued. "Last weekend my daughter wanted to go to a party at a friend's house and my wife and I said yes. When she got home my wife took her phone from her and started going through her texts and photos to confirm she was actually at her friends."

That's where the dad lost his cool, as he felt that his wife was invading their daughter's privacy. "Yesterday my wife took my daughter's laptop and threatened to take the door from her room if she found out she was talking to boys. My daughter has never even been given a rule not to talk to boys so this all seems insane to me," the husband mentioned. While discussing this with his wife, she revealed she just wanted a bit more discipline in the house as their kids were "too relaxed."

"Well today my wife asked me to help take my daughter's door and I pulled her into our room to have a private conversation and things got heated. I told her I felt she was being extremely irrational and bullying our daughter and implementing insane standards they have never had to or should have expected. How is our daughter being punished for a rule that never existed? I told her that I would leave her and take the kids if she didn't start reflecting on what she was doing and start respecting them as people again. She burst into tears and went to stay at her sister's," the post concluded, before adding that his sister-in-law also sided with his wife. The community poured in to share their two cents on appropriate parenting styles and their own experiences with raising kids.

u/BroadElderberry commented, "This is a very common response to a child growing into an individual. Parents are perfectly relaxed so long as they feel like they're still in control. As soon as the kid starts to exhibit independence, the parent feels a loss of control, freaks out and all hell breaks loose." u/listingpalmtree quipped, "That's seriously jumping the gun. Lots of people have levels of internalized misogyny and it's triggered when their daughters get to different developmental stages. Example: My mum had no trauma, she was just a control freak who liked to occasionally call me names for no reason." u/SuperNova_SailorMoon added, "It could also be that some parents get jealous when their kids start relying on others instead of solely the parents. Again an internal issue that is being projected onto others."