'You are overstepping': Aunt tries to parent 12-year-old niece, sister demands she apologize

• But the thing is, if you're a micromanager about how people watch your children, they might not volunteer to do so again. You have to pick your battles. Like, if Grandma lets your kids stay over and eat a lot of sugar then stay up late watching old movies, you might want to just bite your tongue and let Grandma do as she pleases. On the other hand, if you discover that Grandma is letting your kid watch age-inappropriate movies, or is letting your kid wander away without knowing their location, you might have to intervene. It's a delicate balance, and it's one that a lot of parents struggle with. 

  This Aunt is pretty sure she's doing a good job as she helps to raise her 12-year-old niece. Too bad her sister feels the opposite, because she's just moved into her house, bringing her kids along! 

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  Tired 12-year-old naps on the couch. 

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  Aunt and niece nap together on the couch. 

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  via Klara Kulikova

  Mom is upset that her sibling is overstepping her boundaries. 

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  Smiling aunt cooks a meal with her nieces.

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  via thechaoticstorm
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• People thought that this person WAS overstepping! 

  But they think that someone needed to step up and raise these kids right.

  After all, this aunt is doing things like teaching kids to eat healthy meals. How could that be a negative? (So long as the aunt isn't like, introducing harmful body image issues or anything like that, but we can't tell that from this post). If anything, I think the sister is a bit jealous: maybe she knows she should be feeding her kids in a more healthy manner, yet she can't afford it, or is too lazy to meal prep food, because it is dull and time consuming work that not every parent wants to do. 

  And the screen time issue might be another spot of insecurity for her! Some parents basically rely on iPads to babysit their kiddos, much to the chagrin of everyone else around them. If you get children too hooked on their iPads, they don't want to do anything else. That makes them, well, “screen zombies,” as one person put it in a rather unkind manner. But it makes them a less wellrounded person, less healthy, and less socialized. Children need to play and have a big imagination, and if they're on a screen so much that they have dark circles under their eyes, that's a sign that they're over indulging. 

  And just one more thing, too: there are a lot of parents who let their kids pick their own bed times! I'm actually glad that my parents didn't do that with me: I had to go to bed at 9 or 10 for most of my childhood and into my teen years. But if they didn't insist on that, I would've stayed up all night reading. So it was helpful that they were a bit strict on that, even though I thought that was irritating at the time. 

  A lot of it comes down to parents who want to be their kid's friend versus being their parent. They never want to be the bad guy. They want to be the cool Mom! At least this Aunt is here to lay down the law since her sister either can't or won't do that. 

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  via Bri64anBikeman

  She may as well do this! It's not like any kid will regret having their screens ripped from their grasp. So what, they're bored? Great! Boredom is really good for them! Maybe they'll start some creative play, or draw some pictures, or get interested in reading. Almost anything is better for them than laying around watching short form videos they'll remember nothing about later on. Once again, it'll be hard for them to handle that at first, and they might whine about it, but they'll build character that way. 

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