For most children, a school trip is the highlight of the academic year. So you can imagine one mum's confusion when her daughter arrived home in tears over an upcoming visit to a waterpark.
The youngster had been looking forward to the trip for months - excited for a day of fun with her friends. But she was left devastated when her teacher "forced her to be the "buddy"' of another classmate.
Unfortunately, her little girl, Bryn, does not get on with the other child, Ben. But she'd been tasked with riding next to him on the bus, eating lunch with him, and going on the rides with him, despite the fact no other children were given buddies.
To her horror, the mum claims the teacher also made her daughter 'believe she was a bad person for not wanting to' spend the day with him. However, she's convinced it was the teacher who was at fault, as the educator has a history of using her "soft-spoken, intelligent older daughter as a 'behavior buffer' for the naughty boys".
In a post to Reddit, the outraged mum said: "It's clear to me that Ms. N is still too comfortable with enforcing archaic gender roles on her kids and forcing girls to do unpaid emotional labor for the sake of the boys."
As such, the mum emailed a complaint to the teacher, but with little success, as she insisted the youngster would have to buddy up with Ben if she wanted to go on the trip.
Fortunately, she has a plan to ensure her child won't miss out. She pulled her child from the trip and booked her VIP tickets to the park for the same day as the school visit, so her daughter could still go and see her friends. However, that was not the end of her story.
"What happened next I wasn't expecting," she continued.
After learning about the problem, the mum says several other displeased parents also pulled their children from the event - and now the school is no longer able to run their trip at the same cost.
Keen for the day to go ahead, the teacher relented and 'practically begged' the mum to let Bryn attend with the understanding she would not have a buddy. But the mum refused, prompting the Reddit post in which she asked if she'd done the right thing.
"I told her she should have thought about that before she tried to make my daughter do her job," she wrote. "My husband said I was being a bit petty and that Ms. N clearly feels bad about what she did, and I should let Bryn go as I've already gotten my way. He asked me if I really wanted to deprive children of what they've been waiting for all year.
"The thing is, if this wasn't Ms. N’s first offense I probably would have agreed, but she has a pattern of this type of behavior and hopefully this will put a stop to it." Accordingly, she wondered if her actions were 'justified'.
But commenters overwhelmingly agreed with the mum over the dad - and supported the arguments she raised.
One person wrote: "Bryn is NINE. Ms. N should be the one helping the boys in the class learn better behavior. What a terrible precedent to set for the young women of the future."
A second added: "I was used as a behavior buffer as a kid many times. Well-behaved kids should not be punished...and made to feel guilty about not wanting too. I would have done the same thing!"
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