'I finally snapped': 20-year-old mom who practices "gentle parenting" with her 4-year-old lets the kid pull on her friend's cat's tail repeatedly without interfering, then plays the victim when her friend complains and asks her to leave her home

Freedom. That's something that we believe in. The freedom to express yourself, the freedom to do what you want to do. We believe in all of that… up until it comes to our cats. Then, there are rules. Our houses, our cats, our rules. And that should be okay. There are certain things that cats can't eat, and there are plants that are poisonous to cats that you shouldn't bring home in bouquets, and, as should be obvious, there are certain things that you are not allowed to do to cats. Like pull their tails.

And so we are fine with gentle parenting. Generally. We're fine with that freedom - for the parents and their kids, that is their choice. Up until it comes to our cats. You can gentle-parent all you want, but pulling on our cat's tails repeatedly is not one of the freedoms that you are allowed to have. Not in our homes, not with our cats.

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"Am I overreacting for kicking my friend and her kids out after seeing her 'gentle parenting' in action?"

via Unsplash / Vyacheslav Platonov - husheddd

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via Unsplash / Christin Hume - christinhumephoto

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Look, we understand gentle parenting and everything that comes with it, we've seen it, but we think this is not it. There's gentle parenting, and then there is letting your child harm an animal without consequences, and that is simply unacceptable.
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The fact that this “friend” somehow made the cat owner come out to be the bad guy in this situation is baffling. She was trying to protect her cat - that is what you are supposed to do, even if the offender is a child. You protect your pet.
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