People rally around mom who cut ties with friend who criticized her for 'gentle parenting'

Parenting styles are deeply personal choices for every parent. Yet, there will always be critics ready to scrutinize parenting decisions. Faced with continuous fault-finding from an inconsiderate friend, a Reddit user chose to end the friendship. The conflict began when the mom visited her friend's house with her 3-year-old daughter, who faces developmental challenges from a genetic condition. Unable to tolerate her friend's constant criticism, the mom decisively cut ties, earning widespread support for her decision.

The mom mentioned that her 3-year-old was a well-behaved kid outside the house but became extremely mischievous at home with just her parents. "My kid is a little slower on developmental milestones, which is normal due to a genetic disease. She is not behind, and we are watching to see if she will need interventions later on," the mom added. While the mom preferred gentle parenting for her 3-year-old, her friend, who was a mother of three kids, resorted to spanking the kids when they didn't behave. So, at the friend's house, the two moms were discussing how they parent and the 3-year-old's mom complimented her friend for her kids' good behavior.

"She was talking about how surprised she was that my kid was so well-behaved for a 3-year-old. I told her how we are trying gentle parenting and it was working well," the mom wrote. However, the friend's comments took a mean twist. She started criticizing that her gentle parenting would make her kid seem entitled and might get her picked on. Also, she pointed out that only because the 3-year-old didn't have siblings, she was behaving well and that gentle parenting would let the kid rough house. "She finally made some comments about her slow development being my parenting's fault and I left," the mom mentioned.

The mom reminisced about how it took "consistency and boundaries" to make her kid's temperament better through gentle parenting. Though she could handle parental differences, hearing such detrimental comments from other moms disappointed her. However, she cut cords with her mean friend for attacking her child. "The audacity of her as my child's godmother to call her retarded, especially because she knows that the high likelihood of various learning disabilities or processing disorders for my kid," the frustrated mom wrote. She was also glad that her daughter was young enough to forget that inconsiderate woman who became the mom's ex-friend from then on.

People backed up the mom's decision and reassured her that her friend had overstepped the line. "This is normal for parents who hit their kids. It's because they can't understand that it's possible to parent your child and somehow not get so emotionally frustrated/angry that you have to beat them," commented u/Hannah_LL7. "I have a neighbor who spanked her kid and constantly made comments about other parents being 'too soft.' Guess which neighbor wasn't invited to her own son's wedding many years later?" wrote u/laursasaurus. "She feels guilt for hurting her kids and if your kid behaves without being hurt, then it holds a mirror up to her mistakes/abuse. Don't take it personally," commented u/sambearxx.