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I think one of the best ways to make a kid learn a lesson is to make them volunteer for a while at a job that will humble them…
And it sounds like this mom did the right thing after what her son pulled…
But that’s just my opinion!
Read her story below and let us know what you think in the comments!
AITA for making my son (16M) volunteer at the zoo, after he made some rude comments?
“I’m divorced but I have primary custody of my three kids, 16, 12, and 8. Last week I took them all to the zoo, and it was mostly a good experience. The two younger kids especially liked it, but my oldest is isn’t very fond of animals.
We passed a zookeeper working hard cleaning a giraffe exhibit, and to my surprise my 16-year-old son pointed and said to his brother “That’s why you do good in school I guess, or you end up scooping poop for a job!”
He said it loud too, the keeper and nearby guests surely heard. I was very embarrassed.
I quickly led them away and left the zoon soon after, and asked him where he learned to talk like that. I said “that’s not even true, don’t many of them have master’s degrees and higher?” But he said he thinks it’s gross menial work for people who don’t want to work with their intellect, and “anyone could do it.” (referencing enclosure cleaning, I assume).
I was pretty appalled by how he’s learned to look down on manual labor but particularly zookeeping, because as I understand, it’s not even “easy” – sure it’s manual labor, but I don’t think I could do what those zookeepers do every day, I gag from our cat’s litter box alone!
I thought the best way to teach him more respect and appreciation was to sign him up to volunteer at the zoo, so that’s what I did. I found a “zookeeper for a week” program at a zoo not far from here and enrolled him.
When I told him he was very upset and said “why would you do that, that sounds awful.” I told him I thought he’d said it was ‘easy,’ so surely just one week wouldn’t hurt, but he said “yeah cleaning up messes is ‘easy’ in that anyone can do it but that doesn’t mean I want to!”
His father thinks this was too harsh when he found out (I’m guessing some of his sentiments may be influencing these attitudes) but I decided to stick with it. AITA?”
Check out what Reddit users said about this.
One person said she’s NTA and made some very good points.
Photo Credit: Reddit
Another individual said this kid’s mindset is pretty sad.
Photo Credit: Reddit
And one individual said she’s NTA and she should also sign him up for a course about manners.
Photo Credit: Reddit
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