Reddit Stories - The FORBIDDEN Flips_ A MOTHER's Demand to Banish GYMNASTICS_

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #gymnastics #parenting #family #conflict #sports  Summary: A mother faces backlash after demanding the banishment of gymnastics, causing a rift in the family and community. The story delves into the consequences of imposing personal beliefs on others, especially in the realm of children's activities.  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, gymnastics, parenting, family, conflict, sportsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Devout spouse insisted that our son stopped participating in gymnastics because she believed that being in the company of girls would lead him astray. When I declined, she spread rumors that I had taken him against his will and physically assaulted her. This is the latest in a string of disagreements that we've recently begun to have regarding our son as he enters his teen years. I met my wife in youth group before eventually getting married years later, but she's also

been the more stricter one between us. And while I believe in being strict to a point, I believe there are some times when she's been unreasonably strict, times where I've had to step in and put my foot down. I remember when our son asked to skip youth group on a Friday to go to a friend's birthday party, but she said no because God is supposed to come first, and while I get that, I told her she was being unreasonable, along with how missing an occasional Friday wouldn't hurt. A similar conversation took place on one of his birthdays when he wanted to sleep in, but she wanted him to come. I again chose to tell her that it wasn't a big deal, and although he was allowed to stay home in the end, she was upset in the car and most of the time at church.

In addition to this, she doesn't want him to have friends who aren't Christians either, and that was one of the bigger arguments we had. When I asked her why she felt like that, she pointed to many mistakes that she made after drifting from God after graduating high school and thinking that she didn't need him, and that she was trying to help him avoid doing the same thing and stuff like that. I told her that while I understood where she was coming from, forcing him to do slash go to something he doesn't want to, will not help him long term and only make him resentful later on, but she's convinced that he'll turn to drinking and other stuff like she did. And she often says those memories often stick with her to the point

where she doesn't want him ever having to live her mistakes. The reason I'm writing this is because of our latest argument. She wants him to quit gymnastics because she thinks that being around a bunch of girls in tights is unhealthy, along with how God wants us to shield our eyes from things that could distract us from him. She also says the sport provides a lot of easy opportunities for him to become lustful in an environment that seems completely normal, and I already knew that trying to talk her out of this one would be almost pointless, but I tried nonetheless.

I told her that while she can think whatever she wants, it doesn't mean that others will think the same way. I also told her that there's nothing immoral about doing gymnastics and especially since he's passionate about it, but she said she didn't want him around an environment that often harbored girls of different ages. And that the last thing she wanted was for him to start looking at younger girls. This is where I snapped and told her that while I supported her desire to talk to him about purity, that she is wrong for putting her religious bias in everything and assuming the worst for

our son. I also told her that she is wrong for assuming our son would think like that, along with how she's wrong for viewing gymnastics in that light. She then told me that she'll no longer drive him or allow him to go at the end of his current class, and I told her that she's wrong and constantly over the top about everything, along with how she's presenting a demented example of Christianity to him. I then went to bed, since I had work in the morning, and the conversation took place right when I was heading to bed, but she said wanted to talk to me first. When I went to work today, my son called me and told me what she said, that she had told him that this would be his last semester in gymnastics, along with saying that it is her duty

to protect him while he lives under our roof. When I came home today, I wanted to talk to her over dinner, and I told him that he could take his food upstairs, but she told him that we were going to eat at the tin. and when we were done, she said that her decision was final, since she is the one who has to drive him in the first place, and when I tried to talk to her. She didn't want to hear it. Eventually, I told my son that I would talk to her and not to worry about anything, and he looked a bit better after I said that, probably because he knew I usually sided with him, but I'm slightly torn on this one. She's the one who drives him, and she's the only one who can while I'm at work.

I'm considering asking someone else to carpool him, but I'm disgusted by the fact that I even have to do that, but my main issue is how she doesn't want to renew him at the end of the semester, so I'm considering using my own money to pay for it myself, but since our finances are combined, I know she'll throw a fit about it. and there's still the issue of how he's getting there. I'm open to any advice that I can get to make this work. I believe that she's wrong and that he shouldn't have to quit just because of her assumptions, but I also know that the real issue lies within our marriage. I've suggested counseling to her, but she refuses to go, so I went by myself for a while, and it did do some good. I want to make things work, and I understand that she's been through a lot,

thus why she's so adamant about him staying close to God. But, I disagree with the way she's going about it, and I'm questioning if I'll ever be able to fully get through to her. T.L. D.R., my wife wants my son to quit gymnastics because she thinks that being in the environment will make him lustful, along with how she doesn't want him surrounded by girls in tights because it's unhealthy, based off of her personal experiences of running away from God and making mistakes before coming back to him.

Thus why she's big on purity and other stuff as well. Update 1, it's been a couple of days since my original post, so I'll get right into it. The short version of last time was that my wife wanted my son to quit gymnastics because she thinks that being around other girls in gymnastics apparel would cause his mind to lust and be ungodly, and this is in the aftermath of her talking to him about purity and whatnot. Over the years, I've been too passive about her ways. when she guilt him into wanting to skip a single youth group meeting to go to a birthday party, all under the impression that God is supposed to come first in everything. She also doesn't want him having friends who aren't Christian because she thinks that that will push him further away from God,

and I consider this a contradiction to the Great Commission that is in the New Testament. Not that I'm someone who advocates trying to bring religion into every conversation and come off as that weird person, but Jesus spent the majority of his time around people who weren't perfect saints, the opposite of what she's mandated. When she tried to force him to skip the party to put him first, I overruled it, taking the easy way out. When he wanted to hang out with friends who weren't necessarily Christians and she threw a fit, I wanted to tell her that that's a form of being prejudiced by judging someone based off

an imaginary image in our heads that has nothing to do with their actual character and before even meeting them. But I took the easy way again and just told him he was fine to keep them, when I believed that that shouldn't have been an issue in the first place. I did the same thing again in regards to the purity talks that she wanted to have with him too, and I agreed and let her have them, although I was rather quiet during the talk that we had. And I now regret and realize just how much of a mistake that was for these reasons. Being completely honest, this whole situation that has been brewing for years has made me grow tired of her

religious nonsense and somewhat religion as a whole. Since it can sometimes become a scapegoat for petty beliefs that people want to promote under the guise of something like that, and I think it's very manipulative. For years, I did nothing because the thought of separation and the opinions that would follow from our church and parents and friends would be overwhelming, considering how some really consider it taboo to get divorced even if it's none of their business. But, to be honest, I don't really care anymore. I've been growing more numb to religion over the past few years because of her, and after hearing her suggest that our son would look at girls in the very same environment that he's grown up around for years in a lustful way.

Just doesn't sit well with me, and that's putting it nicely. She's sexualizing a sport and suggested that our son could become a predator if he stayed, and that has resonated more than anything else she's ever done, along with making me wonder if she doesn't have that kind of mindset herself already. So, what did I do? Before doing anything, I decided to talk to her one-on-one about the matter. I asked if she had anything against gymnastics personally, and I told her that trying to make him quit would only make him hate us. She replied something along the lines of how the world has a habit of making everything that isn't sexual, sexual, and that the gymnastics environment promotes girls in clothing that can be easily looked at wrongfully, then going on to say stuff about how God wants us to have clean eyes and stuff like that.

When I suggested that perhaps she was projecting her personal problems on her, which I debated if it'd be too harsh to say, but chose to anyway. She just said no and didn't want to talk about it. I eventually asked if she'd be willing to go to counseling with me, a professional counselor who we'd find within the area. She said no, and then I offered talking to someone inside the church second. But she became defensive and said that I was trying to. trying to embarrass her in front of her friends, to which I told her wasn't true, but that she

wasn't cooperating when a marriage is supposed to be about working things out. She then proceeded to get upset and say that I'm wrong for allowing our son to stay in an environment where he'll grow older as younger girls keep coming in, and that it says a lot about what I'm comfortable about looking at, by allowing him to do so. And I was done after that, since I felt she was accusing me of being unfaithful simply because I don't think he should quit gymnastics. Sure, I could talk to other parents and try to arrange a carpool, and I could drive him myself if I could get off early enough from work on some days too. But I can't control what she does at the home when I'm not there, since she already talked to him behind my back on numerous occasions

while I'm at work, trying to explain why she wants him to quit and whatnot, and if she doesn't want to talk or cooperate with me, then what more can I do? I talked to my son, told him. I talked to my son, I told him that we'd be going up to my parents for the weekend and potentially a bit longer, and I was direct in telling him why. I told him again that I'm on his side and that she is sexualizing a sport and minors in a way that is very inappropriate, and that the last thing we need is to deal with that as he goes into his teen years. I also apologized for enabling her for so many years while being afraid of the idea of separation, and while I heavily debated whether or not I should be this direct about explaining everything at his age.

I did because I didn't want him to feel that I kept things from him as he grew older and throughout this situation, and I also told him how it was making me stressed at work and unable to focus on my job, which allowed him to open up and tell me that he feels guilty about wanting to go, which I told him was wrong and that he has nothing to feel guilty about. But, the fact that she made him even have these doubts, is something that didn't need to exist in the first place, and my parents are helping me look into a lawyer and other ways to comfort him. A lot of this is on me for allowing it to go on for too long, but I just want to

know how to help him with the guilt that he voiced in the aftermath of her words. Besides telling him that I'm on his side and that she's wrong. She's already implanted that doubt whenever he's in the gym now, and I just want to help him navigate it to the best that I can and undo the damage that her bullshit has caused. As for my wife, she didn't know that we left until after we got there, but I told her exactly why we had left, and she was slightly apologetic on the phone. I asked her again if she'd be willing to go to counseling, but she accused me of trying to manipulate her into going. So I told her to call back if she had a change of heart, but my main priority remains undoing the damage she's done to him while recovering mentally myself and potentially

working through a separation unless she shows that she's willing to change, which I have my doubts about, considering we left and she still wouldn't consider counseling. Just being up here though is more peaceful and needed from the stress of work and being in that home. Final update, it's been almost a month, so I wanted to come back to this. I'm not going to lie, I'm really tired at this point, and I wrote a lot the last two times, but I don't think I will this time because I'm really losing my energy about it. Basically, when we were still staying at my parents, I told her why we left and that I'd return if she had a change of heart when we first talked, but she refused to budge on her stand.

that it is inappropriate for him at his age to be in the same gym at little kids and preferably girls from a purity standpoint. Since she believes that the world has a habit of turning everything that isn't sexual into something sexual, and she believes that the sport just serves as a candy to lustful people who can watch girl run around in leotards as she often points out, and she's told him this bullshit while I'm at work, and it drove me crazy. I couldn't focus when in the back of my mind, she's at home telling him shit that I'll have to undo later, and I've stated in my update that a lot of her behavior is on me for being lax over the years, but I'm trying to do better, but it's been really stressful and it still is almost a month later.

When we were at my parents, we stayed there for a little while, but she began to tell her parents and mutual friends false things about me, to the point where her parents and some of them began to call me or message me on her behalf and call me a bad husband along with other things, and apparently she told them that I kidnapped our son. Along with other things about how I'm this horrible person because of her lies, not to mention something about me putting my hands on her once too, which I swear never happened once in our life or even when we were talking about going to counseling. My parents told me that she was trying to guilt me into returning under her terms and that I should continue to stay with them because she has truly gone off the rails,

and we've been here ever since, but I've taken a leave from work because my mind hasn't been in a good place for over a month. And that's from everything that happened at our house and the new lies and the stress my son feels in finding a lawyer and researching other legal things with my parents and it's taken a lot of time out of my parents' lives too, but they've been amazing and I want to thank them when it's all over and even before them. From talking to the police and organizing documentation for them and my lawyer, I'm tired right now, and my parents are too, but we're still trying to figure it out and know that this will probably be a long process, and I don't care how much it costs to debunker lies and get us both into therapy.

My son, however, does not want to go, and I told him alongside my parents that he could go with me or alone only if he wanted to and that we weren't forcing him, but he said he didn't want to at the time, so we've left it for a bit instead of forcing the issue, and I've begun talking to one in my spare time online as well. and my parents are helping me pay for it a little. However, my son doesn't want to do gymnastics anymore, and he's still hard on himself for everything that's transpired despite the many times me and my parents have tried to assure him that nothing is his fault. All of it is mine for letting her go down this slippery slope for so long, but he's had no desire to do it and has voiced guilt about being around girls and making them uncomfortable without even knowing he was,

but I told him that that was his mom putting that in his head and that it isn't true. But I regret going along with her desire to teach purity and keeping us in a church that ostracizes people for having an abortion like one girl I mentioned in my second update, the same church that she has spread her lies to about me, and I have no intention of ever returning there again. In regards to his schooling, that's another mess at the moment. He hasn't been in class because she went to them too, and my lawyer thinks it's best to hold off on that for the moment for his well-being with others and the fact that she could show up there herself, but he wants him to go back sooner rather than later, and I do too.

And I'm trying to see if there's a way that he can do most of his work online or something, but I'm still working on that at the moment, but most importantly. I'm trying to help encourage him to speak to someone for how he feels that's far beyond how I'm able to help him from a professional standpoint and standing by him until he decides to do anything else. From a mental standpoint, he feels guilty like I said, not just for what happened with mom, but about the things she said to him about him lusting after girls without him knowing it at gymnastics, stuff that I don't want him developing a complex about over her nonsense,

but my other main priority is getting a divorce after this last straw. I can't take it anymore, and I don't know how much longer this will continue. Probably a while, but he's tired of gymnastics and not in a good state right now, and my parents think it's best to probably have him go to see someone sooner rather than later, which is why I'm probably going to make him go at some point. Although I don't know the best way to do that without coming off as forceful in a way that he'll resent, and if anyone has any advice on how to make him go in a way that doesn't make him upset or resentful or unwilling to potentially help us with some of the legal stuff she might have said to him.

Although I know that that is not my first priority. I'd really appreciate that as it hasn't been easy on him, and I just would just want to want it to be over, but I'm aware that this is the consequence of letting her get away with small things over the years that boiled into this, but if we can come out all right, then maybe we can both somehow be stronger at the end of it. Next story, boyfriend's surprise was flying in my estranged parents without telling me. When I left, he got mad at me for ruining his surprise and said he had a right to meet them. My boyfriend, 26M, and I, 23F, have been dating for a little over eight months, and on early November it was my birthday. I was excited, as it was the first time we were

going to be spending either of our birthdays together, and he had spent all of October teasing a surprise he was planning. Now, for context, I should mention I have a very complicated relationship with my parents. He knows this, and we have spoken in detail about why that is the case. My parents are out of my life, and have been for the past two years, he knows all this. Because of my relationship with my parents, for the last couple of years, I spent my birthday with my best friend, who I consider family. So, when my boyfriend let it slip on my birthday that the surprise he had planned was a family dinner, I had sort of assumed it meant my sister and her husband, and my friend and her partner.

I was wrong. The surprise he had planned was flying in my parents from a whole different city. I was confused as to why he would bring them, but I might have overreacted. I don't think I even stayed there for more than 30 minutes before I walked out of the restaurant and drove home. I don't really remember much of it. I just couldn't sit there and listen to my parents belittle me while my boyfriend was sitting there. The next day, my boyfriend showed up to my place. I knew we were going to talk about the previous day, but I guess I was expecting him to apologize.

He didn't. Instead, he got angry at me for ruining the surprise he had been planning for a long time, and he said he just wanted to give me a chance to have a normal relationship with my parents. I understand where he is coming from, I guess, but I really didn't appreciate the way he went about it. I told him this, and he wasn't really receptive. He just said that as my boyfriend he had a right to want to know my parents. I can really see what he means, but I can't help to still feel like I'm owed an apology. So, am I the asshole for ruining my birthday surprise?

comment where OPP has replied, comment her, O.M.G. Your son Tau. Your boyfriend, however. I suspect this isn't the first time he's disrespected you. He has no right to know your parents, your siblings, your friends, your bank balance, or even your favorite color. Does he always make everything about him? Whoop? What really surprised me at that it really was the first time. He's always been really sweet and thoughtful it didn't even cross my mind he would have done something like this update. December 1st, 2024. First of all, sorry for not replying to any comments at all. I got overwhelmed by the amount of attention the post was getting, and I didn't really know how to deal with over a hundred people telling me to break up with my boyfriend. We did break up.

I wish I could say I confronted him with all the comments and their carefully constructed arguments. Don't get me wrong, they definitely did help me, but I am terrified of conflict, so it's probably not the dramatic update a lot of people were hoping for. I should say, we did technically make up the day after my birthday surprise slash ambush. I posted about it because I was feeling discontent with how we resolve things. Now I see it's because things weren't resolved at all. He just made me apologize about it without giving me an opportunity to be angry. I thought I could tell him to come to my apartment next week, so I had more time to figure out a natural way to bring it up, and then when we had a conversation about it we could move on from it. I ended up bringing it up after we had lunch together yesterday, while I was driving him back to his place. I hadn't even meant to do it, but I didn't know how to behave with the underlying anger that I now had. So, in the end, I just asked him why he had done it, trying my best not to sound angry as I generally don't like being angry. He said he wanted to get to know the people that raised me.

His answer was bullshit for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that I have literally told him that my older sister is the person that raised me. When he met her and her husband, we all joked that it was like meeting the parents. I told him that he had every right to want to meet whoever he wanted, but he had no right to go behind my back and force me to be around people I have cut out of my life.

The next thing he said is truly what made me break up with him. He said he doesn't understand how someone can stop talking to their family. I cannot stress enough how many times I have explained to him why I have stopped talking to my parents. He has asked more than once. After he said that I think I had a realization, he doesn't understand me, he has made no efforts to do so. So I told him that after I dropped him off at his place I didn't want to see him anymore because I don't want to put an effort with someone that doesn't care about what I want.

He didn't take that well, but his emotions are not my problem anymore. Right now, I mostly feel really sad. I know I'm probably better off like in the long run, but breakups suck, and I did love him. I think I'll be okay, I really appreciate everyone's support.