A raging mum has slammed her daughter's teacher after she arrived home in tears over an upcoming visit to a waterpark. Bryn, 9, had been looking forward to the visit with her friends until she learned that she had to be a buddy for another classmate.
Despite not getting on with the other child named Ben, the teacher told her that she had to ride next to him on the bus, eat lunch with him, and go on the rides with him. The mum was horrified to learn her daughter was the only child who had been given a buddy and told how she had been made to 'believe she was a bad person for not wanting to' spend the day with him.
In a Reddit post, she said the educator had a history of using her "soft-spoken, intelligent older daughter as a 'behavior buffer' for the naughty boys". According to the Mirror, she said: "It's clear to me that Ms. N is still too comfortable with enforcing archaic gender roles on her kids and forcing girls to do unpaid emotional labor for the sake of the boys."
Concerned, the mum emailed the complaint to the teacher but was told that Bryn would have to buddy up with the boy if she wanted to go on the trip. Enraged, she decided to pull her daughter from the trip and booked VIP tickets for the park on the same day as the school visit, so her daughter could still go and see her friends.
After learning about the problem, the mum says several other displeased parents also pulled their children from the event - and now the school is no longer able to run their trip at the same cost. Keen for the day to go ahead, the teacher relented and 'practically begged' the mum to let Bryn attend with the understanding she would not have a buddy.
She refused, telling the teacher: "I told her she should have thought about that before she tried to make my daughter do her job."
The mum took to Reddit to ask their advice after her husband called her petty and urged her to rethink as to not deprive the other children. She wrote. "My husband said I was being a bit petty and that Ms. N clearly feels bad about what she did, and I should let Bryn go as I've already gotten my way.
"He asked me if I really wanted to deprive children of what they've been waiting for all year.The thing is, if this wasn't Ms. N’s first offense I probably would have agreed, but she has a pattern of this type of behavior and hopefully this will put a stop to it."
Commenters overwhelmingly sided with the mum over the dad.
One person wrote: "Bryn is NINE. Ms. N should be the one helping the boys in the class learn better behavior. What a terrible precedent to set for the young women of the future."
A second added: "I was used as a behavior buffer as a kid many times. Well-behaved kids should not be punished...and made to feel guilty about not wanting too. I would have done the same thing!"
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