It is so sad to read a story about a kid who is being alienated from reading. I loved reading as a kid, and would get in trouble because I'd stay up past my bedtime in order to read. Everything about the time spent at his mother's house seems unreasonable, tbh. All those chores, for a place he hardly spends any time in? Too weird. Honestly, if the mother is concerned about her children's skill levels, the best solution according to educators is for *her* to read with her 8 year old. Every day. For 30 minutes.

How the heck is it fair to punish a good kid with four times the forced reading time of the lazy kid that actually needs the extra lessons? That's the exact opposite of fairness. If the youngest kid complains, explain it to them and make it clear that when their work improves they don't have to do it either because to them it's not punishment, but a neccessity to learn what the other kid already can do.

If she's expecting Dad to enforce her rules at HIS house he could easily say that his rules need be enforced at hers! She's not only treating her son like a baby but expecting him to be a third parent and role model at the same time.

The opposite happened to me (I was not allowed to read anymore) and boy, did it increase my hunger for books and decrease my will to socialize! Also, your child is not your antagonist, wtf are people trying to achieve with this much pressure? 🤷🏼‍♀️

If the 8 year old isn't doing well in school for reading, you should be spending 15-30 mins reading WITH him. You don't need to increase the amount of time spent reading, you help them find something to read that is more difficult. Otherwise, the teenager is just going to read Naruto manga or random internet sites for 2 hours day.

Can't you just see his college interviews: Q. What clubs are you in and hobbies do you have? A. I read for 2 hours a day. - good luck with that

I love reading but if I was forced to read for x amount of hours I'd probably never read again

The ex sounds like such a stupid b***h.

Parents enforce stupid rules on children just to control them... Its not the matter of being fair or just. They do it just because they can. And when their children move away from them at the first chance, they play the victim and wonder why their kids are ungrateful. IMO every couple who wants to have a baby should be made to take a course on good parenting and importance of boundaries.

I don't mind reading for hours if the books are my type but enforcing a 2-hour "reading rule" on an 11-year old is some level of bull-eff-ery. Personally, I'd tell Callum to read often but at your own pace and pick a genre. Who knows? That 2-hour readfest might come naturally later on. But enforcing it straight up? Hell NAH!!! Good on OP for leaving that nutter-ress in his rear view mirror. SMH!!!

The eldest child is a babysitter/maid and that's the real reason she's upset he doesn't want to be around her and her other family. NTA.

Those kids are in a toxic controlling household- and their parents are setting them up to fully resent their relationship and most likely become binge drinking college kids. All three kids are being oppressed imho - the teenager is the only fortunate one who has a loving father who can see through his ex wife's absolute BS. I definitely am concerned for the other two children. Wow

God, I love reading but even I can't fit in two hours of it every day! This rule makes absolutely NO sense. We certainly had to enforce a reading rule but we did NOT enforce it on ALL of the kids, just the one who wasn't doing any of his reading at all.

Nah bro you are good

I think reading is excellent, and having a requirement for the younger children to read for half an hour a day is great - but there's no need to have a 15 year old read for 2 hours a day if he doesn't want to. Half an hour, would be reasonable, if he needed reading practice, but two hours is excessive. I say this as someone who happily reads every spare minute. Dad is NTA here, and that teenager is going to stop spending time at his mom's place if she doesn't lighten up.

NTA your ex and her new husband are.

Doesn't sound like he has a lot of privacy and personal time. A week's notice for plans (even if they don't have to take him anywhere?), forced babysitter, showing texts *every night*. Bedtime/curfew and chores are eh but not too bad tbh. But the rest. Dude, he's 15. He's gonna be out living in the world soon. Let him build that independence, or he'll build it without you at all. And yeah, 15 year old should not be doing this stupid reading rule. It would be fair if it was 2 hours studying and doing homework, that age there's always some kind of exam approaching. There's only so many hours in a day. Without an allowance, he might want to work for some money. He has homework and studying to do anyway. 2 hours reading on top of that so doesn't feel fair (as someone who can spend an entire day wrapped in a book)

Structure is good but forcing adherence isn't. Dad, you're in the right me providing 15yo is respectful, what he does in his time is his business.

That's not right to have all kids to have the same consequences that relate to only one child. I have three adult children now and a grandson. If one of them did or did not do something, they and they alone, faced those consequences. I also co parented with my youngest, father. We need a good job. There was only one time I disagreed with him. He had grounded her because she was a couple of minutes late at curfew. But he never told her she had a curfew and did not know. He and I discussed it (did not take my daughters wo

Ok, so the youngest gets an infection, and needs antibiotics. The middle kid has to take double the antibiotics, and the oldest quadruple, just to make things fair.

I honestly see nothing wronf with it sometimes I had to read as a kid when I didn't want to and it actually made me love books. I agree 2 hours a day a his age is too much but over all most 15yo wi not do this if they do not have to. And we all know that they easyli spend 2 hours on social media or video games... honestly the fact that nost people here agree with ghe father shows whats wrong with the direction of our world. We ecourage stupidity. Reading every day is a step in the smart direction. Every succesful person will state that reading everyday is even more important than school.