Teenager calls out mom over ‘unfair’ punishment method: ‘Strict parents make sneaky kids’

A mom fed up with her teenage son’s behavior wanted to know if her punishments were too strict.

She took to Reddit’s “Am I the A******” forum for a second opinion. The mother decided to take disciplinary action when she discovered her 14-year-old son was sneaking out of the house to smoke marijuana with his friends. 

“Two weeks ago I went to go tell my son that it was time to go to bed because it was a school night,” she wrote. “He wasn’t in his room, so I checked the whole house and he wasn’t anywhere. I freaked out and called him, no answer. Called again and when I was about to hang up and call the cops, he answered.”

The son told her he was at a nearby park. When she arrived she saw that he and his friends were smoking weed. She drove all of the boys home, but none of them thought it was a big deal. One of the kid’s parents even told her as much. 

“The other boy’s parent said that she had let him walk to the park at 9 p.m. and, ‘everyone smokes weed.’ Never mind that we’re in the middle of a pandemic and they all shared a joint,” she explained. “She had the audacity to suggest that I should try smoking because I needed to relax. When it was just my son and I in the car he snidely said, ‘see not a big deal.’ By the time we got home, he had told me that he had been smoking since he was 12 and he called me a loser.”

Then the mother doled out the punishments.

“His punishment:

  • He’s grounded.
  • He can leave the house for a 15 min walk around our street in the morning and a 15-minute walk after he finishes his classwork. I sit outside reading the paper during that time to monitor him. The only other time he leaves is to help me grocery shop.
  • When I have to go out, I hire a babysitter.
  • No video games or electronic devices, except for the computer that his school gave him to do schoolwork. There’s so many content blockers on it that he can’t do much else on it.
  • Forbidden from talking to the friends that he was with that night. He can email other friends but says, ‘that’s lame and they won’t answer.’
  • Random room checks on him.
  • Every night after dinner, I make him read aloud an article about the dangers of marijuana on the adolescent brain.

As of now he’s grounded for a month, but I add an extra day for every day he doesn’t follow my restrictions. Right now he’s at 10 extra days.”

Now her teenage son thinks she is being unreasonable. The mother said her issue was with how marijuana affects undeveloped brains and that it may interact with his ADD medication. She said when he is of legal age in his state he can go to a dispensary, until then it is illegal and he is a child.

“My son thinks it’s unfair. He keeps saying strict parents make sneaky kids,” she said. “He told me that not letting him see his friends is ruining his mental health. I offered him a therapist, but he refused. I think it’s fair because what he did was so dangerous.”

Reddit users felt the mother was just doing her job as a parent. 

“He’s a child. This is your job,” one user wrote

“He’s breaking the law. That’s the only argument that matters. It’s your job as a parent to teach him not to do that,” another said

“Smoking weed is fine. Smoking weed at 14 isn’t. Your punishment is harsh but reasonable,” someone added.

If you enjoyed this story, you might want to read about these parents who threw an incredible gender reveal party for their 17-year-old son.

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