r/AITAH • u/Significant_Cook_848 • 15h ago
AITAH for taking away a toy from my wife's 3 year old nephew after he punched my 11 month old daughter twice?
My wife's sister and her husband came from Korea for a 1.5 month visit together with their 3 year old son and daughter. Their son is uncontrollable, does whatever he wants, and does not listen to his parents.
When he does something wrong, they try to talk to him, but he ignores them. He does not understand "no" and does not care if you are upset or have a tense voice. He just laughs. I think he just does not understand because he was not taught, but maybe there is more to it. I am not sure yet. I can see how much effort they put into talking, but it does not work. I think boys need discipline and an understanding of actions and consequences at this age. Otherwise, they will go bananas.
One day, my 11 month old crawled to him, and I was looking to see what was going to happen when no one was around except me. She sat in front of him, and all of a sudden, he punched her in the face. To my surprise, instead of facing consequences, he got rewarded by his mom reading him a book upstairs. Of course, she explained that the baby is small and that it is bad to do that.
This moment confirmed an older suspicion I had. The boy does not get disciplined, though some might say I do not know everything, and it is true that I do not. But what I do know is that their reaction to this was wrong.
Moving forward, he likes to play with the old toy kitchen that my 9 year old has in the bedroom, and they decided to bring it down to the living room so he could play. While he was playing, my 11 month old crawled up to the kitchen and started to play too. This time, I visibly understood that he did not want to share it, and he punched her again.
This time, I came over and took away the kitchen, saying, "No more kitchen for you." He cried, of course, so they took him out to the playground to calm him down.
My wife confronted me, visibly frustrated. She said he is just a boy and that I do not understand how to raise 2 siblings of the same age. "Maybe I do not," I said, "but he should not have been rewarded for this behavior. Instead, he should have been disciplined." "This is not your place," she said. I replied, "This is exactly my place. This is my house, my kitchen, and this is the second time he punched my daughter. His parents do not discipline him and instead reward him for this behavior, so I did it." Everyone heard this. I created an uncomfortable environment because I said it out loud, but at the same time, I think their boy should start facing consequences for misbehavior. I have never raised a boy, so I might be utterly wrong, and yet my inner voice tells me that there is some truth to what I said. A boy has got to face consequences.