Mom’s response to her young teen son’s cruel dating prank goes viral and wins the internet’s praise

A slew of Reddit users praised an anonymous mother for doing the right thing after her son's cruel dating prank on a friend resulted in a severe punishment.

The topic was broached on popular Reddit thread "r/AmItheA**hole."

What are the details?

The unnamed mother, who goes by the user "conflictedMomThA," explained that her 15-year-old son — whom she referred to as "Jacob" in the thread — pulled an "incredibly cruel 'prank'" on "Ashley," a female friend.

"I know this girl, she's been to our house and even attended Jacob's birthday party a month ago," the mom wrote. "She seemed incredibly sweet if not a bit shy. So when my oldest son 'Mark' (17) came to me and told me Jacob had asked Ashley out on a date as a prank I was stunned."

The mother said that she immediately wanted to confront her son in hopes that the report wasn't true — but had suspicions that the teen had gone and made a mockery out of Ashley's apparent affections toward him after she'd seen lengthy message exchanges with her son and his friends on chatting app Discord.

"I was speechless," she said of reading the messages, which were left open on a public device. "And that's not even getting into HOW he was talking, like he was some thug and not a 15 year old living in a gated community."

The woman said that she felt gutted over her son's apparent heartlessness and debated on how to confront him and how to handle the ensuing consequences.

"[A]fter a day of thought I decided what was going to happen," she recalled. "First things first, he was grounded, for how long I'm not sure. Secondly, I'd gotten Jacob a bike for his birthday but it hadn't arrived until the day previous and I'd planned to give it to him when my parents came to visit since they'd been unable to make his party."

The mom said that she decided to use the bicycle as a teaching tool — and one that he'd likely never forget.

"[I]nstead of [giving him the bike] I showed him I knew about the 'prank' and told him he was grounded, then I made him carry the new bike out of my bedroom closet and to the car before driving to Ashley's house, him crying the whole way," she said. "I'd called her parents earlier and explained everything and so once we got there I had him cart it to their front porch and ring the bell."

At that point, she said, she demanded her son issue an apology to the young girl in front of her parents — and give her the bike.

"[I]n front of me, Ashley, her parents, and God I had him give a sincere apology and gift her the bike," the mother said. "Even I apologized to her, saying I didn't raise my boy this way and what he did was unforgivable. I also called the parents of the other boys who were apart of this little stunt and they all seemed rightfully horrified by their sons' involvement."

The woman said that she eventually told her parents what happened to her son's bike — but that they responded that she had been too harsh and had gone too far with the punishment.

"I still feel like what I did was right but having my parents more or less dog pile on me like this actually made me wonder if how I handled it was too extreme? AITA here?" she asked, using the abbreviation for "Am I the asshole?"

What has been the response?

The thread, shared on Thursday, has amassed more than 19,500 upvotes and received more than 2,000 comments, resulting in an overwhelming number of users branding her "not the asshole."

One user responded, "[Y]ou did the right thing. If there hadn’t been consequences that hit where it hurt, he may not have learned how unacceptable that behavior is. That cruelty is sadly common in kids around that age, but this is the absolute right step towards him becoming a good man."

Another added, "I'm sad to say I know how cruel young boys can be. Not personally but back when I was in high school I witness something similar to this happen to the 'weird girl' and it ended very very poorly for her. May she rest in peace."

"Not to mention the effects of these kinds of 'jokes' are lasting," one user responded. "I’m 21, I had this s**t happen to me when I was 11-15, I still have a hard time accepting compliments, or believing anyone could be attracted to me despite being in a 5 year relationship. In my head I’m still the undesirable girl who people find so repulsive that the idea of dating me is a big hilarious joke to them."

Another responded, "Your son has hopefully learned a lesson here. You're doing tough things a parent needs to do to raise their kids properly. You could've handled this an easy way, but you did it the hard way and the right way."

You can read the full thread of responses here.

(H/T: Newsweek)