Are Parents Allowed To Take A Joke Too Far With Their Teens?

Parenting teenagers is not for the faint of heart. Most people who are in the midst of it would probably tell you that humor is one of the things that gets them through.

That said, just because you’re the adult and they’re kids doesn’t mean you’re allowed to make endless jokes at their expense, does it?

OP doesn’t think so – or at least, she doesn’t think it means you should expect to do so without your child eventually hitting back.

She’s close to her younger brother, and hasn’t enjoyed watching how her parents have treated him and his desire/request for help in buying his first car post-high school graduation.

I [20 F] am an older sister to my little (biological) brother (17 M) who finished high school last year. My little brother and I are really close. He says I’m the best friend he has and he loves me more than anyone (of course this is not true, he has many friends of his own).

My brother has been asking our step-dad/mother if he could get a new car for his grad party since last year, and he said he’d pay 50-75% with his own hard-earned money while they paid the rest. They said no. I have a car but I had been working for one, they helped me pay off for it.

Eventually the brother and his parents (one being a stepdad who he has never really liked or had a great relationship with) came to an agreement in which they would help him purchase his car after his graduation party.

So my brother’s arguments with our parents got heated after awhile (one time I told my brother that I’d help him pay off expenses for a good car once I got my own. He hugged me and said I didn’t need to worry and that he owed me way more than I owed him). But he continued to press our parents all of last year until they gave in and said yes like they did for me.

Note that our step-dad and my brother have a negative relationship for the most part. Our bio mother and step-dad got together soon after our bio dad and mom divorced when we were little. My brother thinks that step-dad and mother were seeing each other before our real parents divorced and tbh, I think that might be true. Not certain, though.

Anyway, my step-dad, mother and brother compromised and said they’d get him the car in 2021 so that people don’t gawk at him at the graduation party.

When the day came, though, they thought they’d be funny and gift a car…to his mother instead.

June this year my brother and step-dad/mother are still on about the car, now the arguments getting loud and lasting hours until evening. My step-dad was getting into screaming matches with my brother over it but they reached a final compromise of the car being bought last week.

The fated morning comes and my brother wakes up to our step-dad and mom guiding him outside to… a car. But not his, our mother’s. Step-dad used his and my brother’s money on a dumb prank, bought a completely different model of car, and said it was for our mother. Our mom and step dad just laughed and kissed each other.

Her brother really let them have it in his intense moment of disappointment.

My brother didn’t lose it, he didn’t even look angry. He just looked dead in our step-dad’s eyes and said, and I’m not joking, verbatim: “you might think I’m f**king stupid, you might think whatever. But I’m just better than you, bro. You know that, I know that, and our mom is a f**king idiot for staying with a prick like you. But I’ll make you wish you’d never f**king met us. I promise you. You might be laughing now, but you’ll be crying later.”

He then walked off, not even looking back at them as they stared horrified.

His parents were shocked and angry, but OP is defending her brother because he was obviously crushed.

They asked me what was that about and I, feeling terrible for my brother, said they had it coming and not to be surprised. So now they grounded both of us.

I’ve had to explain the situation to my friends as I can’t see them anymore but I feel so bad for my baby brother and they back me up on this and ask me to comfort him as much as possible.

But our parents are so mad, and they can’t see that my brother had his heart crushed. AITA?

Does Reddit think the brother’s tirade went too far? Were the parents the ones who stepped over the line?

Let’s check it out!

The top comment says her brother is not the a$$hole, the stepfather is a jerk, but the mother is the absolute worst.