A mother has taken to Reddit to ask users if she was an a**hole for refusing to see her daughter’s school play because the 7-year-old wanted to be cast as a tree.
According to the mom, who was slammed by other people after her post went viral, her second-grade daughter ditched her role as a singing angel to be a tree instead.
“My daughter’s 2nd grade class has a school play coming up and my daughter was going to be one of the singing angels. Last week, the teacher sent me a note saying that my daughter didn’t want to sing anymore and that she wanted to be a tree,” the mother wrote on Reddit.
“I spoke to the teacher and told her absolutely not, my daughter will not be a tree and the teacher agreed me. She said my daughter is the best singer in the class and that she even has a solo(!!!)… but also that if my daughter refuses to sing, she can’t make her.”
As the upset mom added, her daughter refused to budge even after she attempted to convince her to be a singing angel instead.
“The trees don’t do anything!!! Why am I going to a play to see my daughter do nothing but stand there in a tree costume??! I had the perfect, little, cute angel costume picked out and everything!” she added.
After arguing with her daughter about the play, the mother told the 7-year-old she wouldn’t come to watch her if she refused to give up on the idea of being cast as a tree.
“I told my daughter that if she’s going to be a tree that day, then I’m not taking off of work. She started crying and ran and told my husband. He was no help. He took her side and said that it doesn’t matter if she wants to be a tree because there’ll be more plays in the future and she might want to be something else. I told him that I would go to those plays then, but I’m not going to this one,” the mother wrote.
After her rant went viral, the mother was slammed by fellow Redditors who suggested she was being selfish and unsupportive.
“Who cares what you wanted her to be. What matters is what she wants to be. Learn to support your daughter,” one person wrote.
“There are all kinds of reasons she may want to be a tree, and she deserves to have parents who will support and love her, not just use her to feed their egos,” another one said.
Someone suggested: “Your (sic) not just an asshole, you’re narcissistic, abusive, and toxic to boot. You keep saying ‘MY DAUGHTER’ when you refer to her as if she were freaking property.”
“You’re right – this should be all about you and what you want. What you want to see, what you’re comfortable with, what you want your daughter to perform. It’s beyond incredible that your daughter’s wishes should play any role here whatsoever and whoever thinks it’s a good idea to respect a 7 year old’s choice of whether or not to perform like a trained seal is ridiculous,” one user wrote in a sarcastic response to the mother.
“Good job training your daughter to realize early on that she needs to discard her own preferences and perform on command. Teach her early on that her role in life is ornamental and that she’ll be judged on how well she conforms to the demands of others, that even when she’s uncomfortable or would like to do something else her opinion is unimportant and people’s love for her is conditional so she’d better comply.”
Even after all the backlash, the mother maintained she was right and insisted on not attending her daughter’s play.
“I’m done. I don’t even know why I asked here. You guys are all just saying, ‘Be happy and just let her be a tree’ because it’s not your daughter. None of you can honestly tell me that if your child went from being a singing angel with a solo to a non-talking, non-moving tree, you would take off of work and sit there and be happy. I don’t believe it,” she wrote in an update.
“Thank you for all the comments but, like I said, I’m going to talk to the teacher (class actually starts in 29 minutes, so fingers crossed) but if my daughter wants to be a tree, fine. I won’t bring it up again, I’ll buy her the stupid costume or whatever, but I’m not taking off of work for that.”
Replaced!