A loving mother in a peaceful suburban house struggled with an agonizing situation as her boyfriend’s 12-year-old son persisted in purposefully frightening their three-month-old daughter. The mother was driven to breaking point by the strange conduct, which continued despite her pleas and warnings.
An anonymous female member shared her distressing experience on the “AITAH” subreddit on January 11, 2024. She questioned the influence of her postpartum depression (PPD) diagnosis on her behavior.
For six years, the Original Poster (OP) and her boyfriend were together. For the last two years, he and his 12-year-old son Jake had been residing with OP. After over ten years of owning her home, OP was presented with an upsetting situation involving Jake’s actions toward their three-month-old kid.
Even while Jake seemed to love his sister, there was a concerning trend when he terrified the baby on purpose. Jake used to come up to the infant and yell, “RA!” loudly, laughing at her terrified reactions. He would then pretend to be sorry and chuckle, saying he didn’t want to frighten her.
Torn between her worries, the possible impact of PPD, and her need for a solution, OP turned to the online community for guidance after experiencing this unsettling routine at least four times a day.
Jake continued to behave uncomfortably despite OP’s repeated attempts to stop him, including warning him about the possibility of injury to the baby’s hearing and highlighting the lack of fun in his activities.
The tipping point was only three days earlier when OP approached Jake and her partner out of sheer exasperation. She gave a severe warning, threatening to have them removed from her life if they made any more deliberate scares.
The boyfriend’s erratic behavior led to the decision to take such extreme steps. He did step in from time to time, but he also wrote off OP’s worries as being exaggerated. He said that youngsters often found humor in a baby’s startle reflex, which served as justification for Jake’s conduct.
With her ultimatum weighing heavily on her, OP remembered the incident well and said, “If he purposely scared my kid again, then [Jake and OP’s boyfriend] would be evicted.” She felt a twinge of regret even after Jake, with a defeated look on his face, went back to his room.
The evening before OP told her story, she briefly left the room, and her three-month-old baby was left swinging calmly. Jake took advantage of her short absence to have another unsettling encounter.
OP heard Jake ask a desperate “What are you doing?” in a baby voice from a distance. Her daughter’s screaming could be heard during the whole scene. She heard her boyfriend stepping in and trying to resolve the situation as she rushed back.
About an hour later, something else uncomfortable happened. This time, OP heard her daughter’s cries reverberating throughout the house as she stepped into the bathroom, followed by the dreaded “RA.”
Driven by a combination of annoyance and worry for her child’s welfare, she did not take long to issue a warning. She told Jake and her partner to pack up and go right away without waiting for an answer, her main priority now is to soothe her upset toddler.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, Jake made an effort to apologize, blaming his behavior on a habit. The boyfriend, however, objected and minimized the importance of what had happened. Unflinching, OP demanded their go after rejecting their justifications. But her lover refused to go, claiming his rightful place in the house with defiance.
When faced with this deadlock, OP threatened to take her own life and have an eviction notice served by the authorities. The boyfriend begged her to stay, saying that Jake is only twelve and could not be perfect, but she refused. The next day, she made a firm decision and filed for their eviction.
In the middle of the growing hostilities, OP had already made an effort to comprehend Jake’s motivations for frightening her kid by asking him outright why he acted in this way. “[He] finds it amusing when children cry,” OP recalled following their chat.
But a part of her still questioned whether she had made the correct decision. “AITA for evicting my boyfriend and his child because his son intentionally scared my baby all the time?” asked the OP.
OP’s tale struck a chord online, garnering sympathy and a lot of attention from the online community. The majority is overwhelmingly in favor of her, with many believing that she made the right decision.
“NTA. Indeed. He is twelve. Old enough to be wise enough to avoid it. old enough to follow directions. If you woke him up every morning, would that be nice for him? No. One commenter said, “He’s 12 but he’s acting like an AH and it sounds almost sadistic.”
“I completely agree that this is not typical for a 12-year-old as a mother. Perhaps at five or six, but not at twelve. After being proven right once or twice, they pick it up. It’s concerning that he claims to like making infants cry. Another individual said, “I wonder what other behavioral issues he has.”
A third netizen said, “As the mother of a 4-year-old, this [behavior] would only be understandable if Jake was 2 or 3 years old.” “Let your partner go to sleep, and when he wakes up, wake him up with a few pan clangs.” Try this about four times a night to see if it makes him reconsider. His child is twelve. He is of legal age to abide by the laws. This goes beyond a child acting like a child, said one more commenter.
Do you agree with OP’s position, or do you think she ought to have handled things differently? If you were her, how would you respond to this situation?
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