Mom Confiscates Daughter’s Glasses After Learning She Stole Classmate's Asthma Inhaler
Was this fair?
fizkes / Shutterstock A mom is asking if she is in the wrong for taking her daughter’s glasses for a day after she learned her daughter had destroyed a classmate's inhaler.
The mother described how her daughter Maddie, who is 15-years-old, had stolen a girl’s inhaler with a group of her friends.
The classmate began to get sick but, luckily the school had a spare for her.
“Because the incident was so serious and also because Maddie and her friends had been tormenting this girl for a while, it resulted in Maddie being expelled from school," the horrified mom explained.
"She'll be starting somewhere different when the summer is over. The other girl's parents almost involved the police but thankfully decided against it.”
However, Maddie apparently believed it was no big deal and that they had just been “messing around.”
After the mother had learned what happened she took Maddie’s glasses as a punishment.
She also took her daughter's two spare pairs from her bedroom, leaving her without any glasses.
"Maddie isn't blind without her glasses, but it's quite inconvenient for her. If she wants to look at her phone for example, she'd need to hold it very close to her face," the mom wrote.
"Maddie was very frustrated that day, and I thought she'd learned how the other girl felt when her inhaler was gone. I gave the glasses back at the end of the day and everything seemed OK."
However, Maddie's dad was horrified by the punishment.
Maddie’s mother believed it had taught her a lesson on how the classmate may have felt.
But, a few weeks later she got a call from Maddie’s father, her ex. She says he “called me, raging at ‘what I did’ to ‘his daughter’. He started saying that he wants Maddie to come and live with him.”
At the end of the thread the mother then asks if she is the a**hole.
Many of the commenters say Maddie’s punishment should have been more severe.
The story was originally posted in August 2021, but has since been removed from the column by AITA moderators.
The top comment says, “This 100%, fellow asthmatic and glasses wearer here she could have killed the poor girl of the school didn't have a spare inhaler, losing her glasses for a day was nothing in comparison to what she did.”
Danigirl3694 then goes on to explain what she would have done in this situation.
“If I was OP I'd either 1. Have her working on a ward for people with asthma/breathing difficulties so she can see the effects first hand and if that wasn't possible then she'd be spending good few days researching asthma then writing a very long essay about what asthma is, the fatal effects of it without medication and why what she did was wrong and how it could have cost someone their life” the commentator said.
“Then I'd have her writing out a very long letter of apology to the girl plus have her pay for the inhaler she destroyed.”
Several seemed to have agreed with this idea.
For example, Emilija80 said, “Absolutely. When I was in the 7th grade a classmate died of an asthma attack while playing sport. He hadn’t had an attack in a long time and being a kid, got complacent about carrying his inhaler."
"It was Saturday so the school office was locked where they kept spares. He died in front of all the kids and parents before the ambulance arrived. It destroyed his family and devastated the community. His father couldn’t eat for months and was hospitalized with malnutrition. This is not a joke. People die from Asthma every day. I have asthma and not being able to breathe is terrifying.”
Many also seemed to believe Maddie should have spent at least a small amount of time in jail.
One commenter said, “100% Maddie legit needs a little time to in Jail to learn actions have consequences. Before someone says that putting her in an institution will make it worse, I'd argue she's going nowhere (or worse) fast as it is.”
What do you think? Was the mother in the wrong?
Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics.