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One thing about kids is a universal truth—there’s never a dull moment with them. And whether they’re known to be on their best behavior at all times or act more like Dennis the Menace, some situations can call for any of them to engage in something their parents would likely not approve of.
But sometimes the seemingly “wrong” thing to do becomes something to be applauded. Members of the ‘Ask Women’ community recently discussed such instances when the user ‘VisibleCoat995’ asked them about the technically “wrong” things their children have done that actually made their parent proud. Scroll down to find the redditors' answers on the list below and see for yourself how eventful life with children typically is and how surprisingly wholesome some “wrongdoings” can be.
Bored Panda has reached out to u/VisibleCoat995 and they were kind enough to answer a few of our questions. You will find their thoughts in the text below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My daughter (6 at the time of the incident) was at school during swimming class. She was sat on the side of the pool as instructed by the teacher, who needed to assist a visually impaired student. An older boy (9 at the time) stood over my daughter, making extremely rude comments about her and kept trying to show her his genitals. She couldn't walk away, so she punched him in the d**k.
She's always had quite the temper, and must have been very angry, because the boy was taken to hospital for extreme bruising and swelling, and so was my daughter because she broke 2 bones in her hand, and needed a cast. We've since signed her up to martial arts, I figure she needed to learn how to punch without injuring herself.
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#2
Broke a boys finger because he tried to put his hand up her skirt.
#3
14yr old son changed overhead projector slides (after his teacher approved them) for his ELA group project to screenshots from his classmate and other students in the school. The text were from the night before calling him names and telling him repeatedly to unalive himself. This particular group has been relentless. His presentation was based on an animal project. After a few slides he says “you guys wanna see what real animals look like” and proceeds to let the whole class read them. He respectfully apologized to the teacher and said I’ll see myself down to the principals office now. I was proud, pissed, and sad.
Legen ( wait for it ) dary 9 months ago
Any child should go thought this. And what da fick is this story of telling people to unalive themselves ? That's horrible.
“I was thinking about an instance where a parent had to strictly admonish their child outwardly while on the inside they struggled not to laugh about whatever it was their child did,” the OP recalled, discussing what made them pose the question on the ‘Ask Women’ subreddit.
“It made me think how kids will do things parents have to tell them not to do because they are dangerous, or break the rules, but they are still the ‘right’ thing to do. It’s a funny dichotomy.”
Some instances like this do tend to be funny, which makes it difficult for parents to keep a straight face, but it’s crucial that they do if they want to teach their little one to distinguish right from wrong. Children reportedly build the foundation for ethical behavior over the first five years of their lives and parents play a crucial role in the process.
#4
When my daughter’s high school student leadership (of which she was a part - freshman class president) decided to stage a walkout to demand action on school shootings, some of her friends told her they wanted to participate but their teachers were saying they would not be allowed to leave the classroom. She asked if they meant they would face suspension or other discipline? Her friends answered “no our teacher said we wouldn’t be allowed to leave no matter what.” My daughter said “that’s not okay, you aren’t a prisoner, if you want to leave and are willing to accept the consequences, the teacher cant lock you in." Then she said that anyone who wanted to participate but needed moral support should message her and she would personally come to their classroom and get them. She collected several kids who were too afraid to defy the teacher and walk out, but who wanted to join the protest.
We had had many a long discussion about civil disobedience in our home on various occasions, and she was fully informed and prepared to take responsibility. I was so proud of her I was fit to burst.
#5
In middle school. A bully at my kid’s school told her that she was going to Hell because she has lesbian moms, and that she should just die now. He said something about sinners not deserving prayer too. She responded, “You should pray my mom doesn’t steal yours from your dad. F**k off.” This happened in front of the class and teacher. Both were sent to the office.
When the school called, it was clear admin was not upset with my kid, but couldn’t tolerate cursing. Issued a warning. My wife and I took her for ice cream when she got home and told her to never stop standing up for herself and those she loves. I warned that cursing at school was against the rules and so by all means to keep up the sick burns, but maybe clean up the language.
The redditor admitted being quite surprised by the sheer amount of responses their post garnered; clearly, this type of wrong-right behavior among children is a rather common occurrence.
“It was interesting to see how many were about kids having to defend themselves against bullies,” they added. “I was in high school when ‘zero tolerance’ was started in my school, where just being a part of a fight, even defending yourself, would get you a suspension—a rule that is just asinine and lazy. Generally it seems to punish the victims more than the bullies.”
#6
Had a daughter constantly getting paired up with a kid who was failing while everyone else got to choose their partners. My daughter started just doing all of the work and turning it in. The teacher noticed and got on her for not teaching the kid how to do the work. My daughter told her “when you give me part of your paycheck I’ll do part of your job”. While I’m glad that she spoke up for herself, I told her that we don’t talk to teachers like that.
#7
My sister got suspended from school for dacking a guy (pulling his pants down) in front of everyone. Later we found out it was revenge for him using a mirror to look up girl’s skirts. 🤷♀️
We were all proud of her.
#8
Our neighbour had asked my son (who was about 9-10 years old) to help her bring some logs inside her house. No compensation mentioned.
He was back, on his own, about 15mn later. Apparently the neighbour was calling him lazy and telling him he was not working fast enough (for free).
So he left her and her wood and came home.
When discussing the “wrong” things kids do, the OP shared that fighting in your own defense or someone else’s defense is definitely something they wouldn’t consider wrong. “If you ask a teacher what to do about someone beating you, the popular response from my childhood seemed to be ‘walk away and get a teacher’; as if it’s that simple.”
They continued to point out that not blindly listening to authority figures would be there on the list, too. “Adults do not always have a child’s best interests at heart and kids need to know when it is appropriate to stand up for themselves when they know what an adult is doing is wrong,” the redditor explained. “Some adults may still see standing up for yourself as disrespect but I think that is slowly changing in society.”
#9
My daughter back in 7th grade had a friend (male) who had his hair pulled back into a ponytail. A couple of bullies were walking behind them and kept pulling the boys' ponytail and calling him names. Ponytail told them to stop but they kept on. My daughter, having seen quite enough, turned around and punched one of the boys right in the face, closed fist and all. She told the boy if he had kept his f*****g hands to himself she wouldn't have had to punch him.
Obviously, I was called to the school for a meeting with the principal, the bullies mom, and ponytail's mom. They tried to suspend my daughter for 2 weeks but her friend defended her. 2 hrs later, the bully ended up with a week's suspension, and my daughter received 1 day.
Do I encourage violence? Absolutely not. But my kids know when and where to defend others who can't/won't defend themselves. I'll never forget that day. I was so proud.
#10
I’m not sure if what my daughter did was technically ‘wrong’ - actually I think it was perfectly correct. Last October her English class was given an assignment to write a horror story for Halloween. Well, my daughter wrote one hell of a story.
I want to be clear the story wasn’t about a school shooting or actively harming a specific person - it was actually about the passive horror of our society and the existential horror of poverty.
I won’t go into details, but it was very well written and descriptive and well and truly horrific. She had to do to a lot of research to get the details correct in her story. I was actually really proud of her, she knocked that assignment out of the park.
Her teacher and the school admin, however, were not impressed. They thought it was too horrific. My husband and I got called in, they wanted to know how a 13 year old girl would write a story like that - the teacher said it was too horrific and not at all what she expected when she gave the assignment. They even wanted our daughter to go to counselling!
We both pushed back hard on the school, she did nothing wrong, she understood the assignment! Anyways, she got an A but I doubt she will be in that teachers class ever again. .
#11
She saw two younger students getting beaten up by a group of senior kids. Everyone watching (recording on phones) with no one intervening. She (and her friend) jumped in and started defending these younger kids. Threw a few, copped a few, put some on their a**es. Teachers finally intervened. Because there was so much video evidence, she was not given any form of suspension/punishment. She didn't even know the kids being attacked. She just knew it wasn't right. Took the, "never start a fight but but god be the one to end it" a little out of context lol. Am proud of her for sticking up for people who weren't able to, but still a scary thing at the time.
“Kids can be amazing and seeing them become their own people and interpret the rules can be an amazing thing,” the OP told Bored Panda. “Too often life will teach us to just follow the rules and not question things. We let the bullies of the workplace or corporations push us around and it might be good to remember what it was like to be a kid when we just did what we thought was right, no matter the consequences.”
#12
My son punched a bully at his school after ignoring him for a few days and the bully never stopped until he finally grabbed him so my son snapped. He got suspended. I was secretly proud of him.
#13
He hit a guy picking on a young woman wearing a hijab. It happened in high school. He got suspended for three days. I told the principal he was a moron and he had suspended the wrong kid.
#14
My kid constantly invents "problem solvers", but since he loves paper, they are mostly made out of paper and upcycled stuff. Everytime I complain or even sigh, he comes up with a solution. This week I have gotten: a tile cleaner (a box with a sponge that can be attached to the tile and when I pull a string it wipes), a hot cup hand protector, a coffee machine that brews the coffee cold (yes, he invented the cold brew, just with a milk carton) and today he programmed his lego robot to respond to my egg timer noise and drive up to me to poke me, because I often don't hear it with the headphones in and almost roasted the potatoes too dark yesterday.
It's all so useless, but I am so proud.
#15
My daughter got in trouble on her 2nd day of kindergarten bc she kicked a boy who [took out] a moth on purpose for fun. My little animal rights activist lol.
Cat Dragon 9 months ago
I'd do the same. But I'd later drag him by his shirt collar and give him to the neighbor's doberman :)
#16
My oldest was taking the classroom part of Drivers Ed online at the tail end of Covid. He’s a bright kid and a fast reader …he got through all the material and passed the tests quickly. However, they apparently require a certain number of hours with the material in addition to passing the assessments to get the certification to move to the “on the road” portion of the class. So he wrote a script that would click around and advance the screen automatically to hit the hours requirement. I loved that he figured out how to code something like that for such a dumb requirement. Work smarter not harder!
#17
My daughter had a boy who was coming up to her at recess and screaming in her ear. Yard duty and teachers did nothing to help. So I told her to stick a piece of bark in his mouth. And she did! When he came up to her the following day she picked up another piece and said "you want another one?" No more issues with screaming bully boy. I was so proud.
#18
Probably a common one, but the time he changed our alarm clocks and the clocks on the ovens to 3 hrs early on Christmas Eve. He had us up at about 3:30 am. Was quite proud as I didn’t know he knew how to change either of the clocks. He was 6.
#19
My 17 year old daughter is deaf, has a cochlear implant and does very well with herself. She took sign language as an elective course to learn what she missed out on growing up learning to speak. the teacher treated my daughter like c**p, letting her know that she was a “disgrace to real deaf people” my daughter had enough, flipped her off, saying “here is some sign language for you” and left the class.
I told her she can’t talk to her teacher like that but I was so proud deep down LOL.
Alexandra 9 months ago
What? She can't talk to her teacher like that? Are you kidding? And the teacher can talk like that to her? That's so wrong-way-around! Don't teach your daughter to respect a person just because they happen to have a certain profession. If you're disrespectful, you're disrespectful, that's the long and short of it!
#20
During my daughter's 4th grade parent teach teacher conference, her teacher informed me she was teaching the other girls in the class about menstrual cycles. The teacher asked me to put a stop to it. To be clear, my daughter hadn't had the full sex talk yet, but I had taught her and her sister about how their bodies worked, in case either of them were early bloomers. When she was in high school, we became the safe haven for pregnancy tests, plan b, condoms etc... for her friends.
#21
So not my child but my little sister(12) she’s always been my responsibility. These girls were picking on her, cornering her in the bathroom, kicking, pinching, pulling her hair, you get the picture.
One day she has had enough and the main girl comes up behind her, slams her water bottle on the ground and kicks my sister. So my sister walks up behind her as she’s trying to walk away and just smacked the ever loving s**t out of the other girl.
on a separate note my sister has been doing gymnastics since she was 5 and is VERY muscular so when i said smacked i mean the other girl literally fell into the wall.
needless to say they both got suspended from friday til monday but im proud of my lil devil, she just like me fr🙃.
#22
Kid, who was 9 at the time. We had an insufferable pediatrician who constantly talked down to both me and my kid, while also not actually helping us in any way. At our (ended up being) final appointment with him he asked my son a question about school, and then interrupted his response to "correct/argue" what he thought my son was saying (which wasn't actually at all what he was saying) . My son was so done with this guy by this point and gave him a full on death glare, and *lost his s**t* on the dr. Just absolutely let the dr have it with an angry, long, detailed list of everything he disliked about him, what he should do instead of assuming he knows everything (primarily listen more and talk less), and then finished up suggesting the dr find a different line of work since he "clearly isn't able to pay any attention to anything his patients think". He suggested being a talk show host or something. 💀 It was the most horrifying and yet satisfying experience. First time the dr was actually silent. Made our excuses and GTFO.
#23
Kicked a doctor for trying to touch him without consent.
Legen ( wait for it ) dary 9 months ago
This. In Köln Germany they teach the kids already at day care (3 - 5) to go alone to the toilet and that only they touch their body or a Dr but only in the presence of parents.
#24
She (youngest) was in 7th grade when a classmate told her she was “going to hell” bc she wasn’t a Christian.
She told the girl, “f**k off.”
I was not happy with the cuss word but I was happy she stood up to herself against a judgmental jerk.
#25
My eldest briefly went to daycare one day a week when he was about 1 and figured out their child locks, a type he'd never seen before, within a day of being there. He caused absolute mayhem in the baby room by unlocking one cabinet and opening it up for the other babies to have at. Then while the staff were trying to get the other babies out of the cabinet, put all the contents back and relock it, my Incarnation of Pure Chaos was busy unlocking another cabinet. Rinse and repeat until they had an extra staff member come and keep my child at bay while the others rounded up babies and relocked all the cabinets.
When I was told what happened at pick up, I didn't know how to respond. I was a mix of concerned, proud, trying not to laugh and embarrassed. But mostly proud, ngl. I spent that walk home from daycare wondering what I inadvertently unleashed upon the world.
#26
My brother fought a kid who was bullying and shoving his best friend who had mobility issues. The principal told him not to do it again while winking over my brother’s head to my mother.
GPawesomeness 9 months ago
Sounds good but, instead of winking, the principal should have taken care of the problem.
#27
My daughter was in grade four when an EAP was supervising the students while they were in groups.
He came to my kids group while why we’re discussing the different religions they practiced at home and what celebrations they have.
One kid said they were a Christian, and celebrated Christmas, and round it went. When it got to my kid she said “I’m an atheist, but we celebrate Christmas”
The EAP jumps on her and says “how can you believe in nothing? How was the world created?”
“Gravity pulled gasses and rocks together”
His queries got bigger: How was the sun created? The universe?
Being the smart a*s that she is, replied: “The big bang created everything.”.
Kristiina Männiste 9 months ago
Christmas is not really Christian tho.. In my country we still call it Jõul (Yule)
#28
My son got in trouble at school for punching another kid in the face.
He had been playing with friends when one of them started tripping him on purpose, he tried to de-escalate and walk away but they followed him and kept pushing him, so he turned around and punched him. Even the teacher said she was reluctant to punish him when she called me.
We went and got ice cream after school.
Cindy Brick 9 months ago
A little boy kept kicking our daughter. (I suspect this was his way of expressing eternal devotion.) After she told the teacher (and no action was taken), I told her to kick him back. You guessed it -- he went screaming to the teacher, who sent Daughter to the office. She told the principal what I'd said, and I got called in. The principal said, "Mrs. Brick, we do not advocate violence." But the little boy never kicked her again!
#29
Not participating in the Pledge of Allegiance at school.
Tobias Reaper 9 months ago
why is this considered wrong its kinda weird only the US and north Korea do this
#30
Years ago, my 15-year-old son was really into computers and programming. He discovered that he could hack into the school's computer system, so he partitioned the drive on the server and loaded on several games. He shared the games with a handful of friends, who played hours upon hours of PC games until, at last, someone in the administration discovered it. He was banned from the school's computers for two months.
While I didn't approve of him fooling around with the school's server, I told his principal that SOME companies pay big bucks to have someone try to hack into their system to find weaknesses, and, luckily, HIS school didn't need to pay someone to do this, since my son had easily given himself full administration rights, and he was only 15.
I didn't punish my son at home except to tell him that it would be a BIG legal problem if he did this again.
What do you think ?
Hey! 9 months ago (edited)
My youngest son was given detention for punching an older boy who was bullying my daughter. They called us in saying he got into a fight. We arrive and all we see in his face are guilt and shame. Our daughter is okay. There's another guy who is screaming murder with a black eye and parents who are clearly upset. Our son was in KD, daughter in G2, bully G4. We tried really hard not to laugh. Brought both kids home, no ice cream for them though, they are allergic. Apparently, the story got around, and the oldest kids figured he was brother with our oldest son (G5-6, different last name) and they gave him lots of respect after that. The year after, the school started a buddy system where the younger kids were attached to older kids, and the oldest were there to be models; it did a great job stopping bullying. Edit: verb is/are
Petra 9 months ago
It's good to hear that the school did something to help fix the problem!
Load More Replies... The Redhead 9 months ago
My daughter had a minor speech delay (she's 6 & never stops talking now lol) anyway at 2.5 she started speech therapy. For some reason she didn't relate well to the first therapist; don't know why she was a nice lady & good with her, but my daughter refused to speak when with her; I was allowed to observe the sessions that's how I know the therapist was good to her.This was during covid so the therapist would get her from the car & bring her back afterwards. One day she brought her out & I was talking to the therapist who said she still wouldn't talk. As I buckled her into her car seat she looked at me & the therapist and said one word "home". We were both happy & proud of her.
Happy Sunshine Panda 9 months ago
what is with all these people in the comments saying, “and then everyone clapped 🙄” like is a child being a smartass really that unbelievable to you?
FluffyDreg 9 months ago
No obviously kids are completely incapable of cussing
Load More Replies... Hey! 9 months ago (edited)
My youngest son was given detention for punching an older boy who was bullying my daughter. They called us in saying he got into a fight. We arrive and all we see in his face are guilt and shame. Our daughter is okay. There's another guy who is screaming murder with a black eye and parents who are clearly upset. Our son was in KD, daughter in G2, bully G4. We tried really hard not to laugh. Brought both kids home, no ice cream for them though, they are allergic. Apparently, the story got around, and the oldest kids figured he was brother with our oldest son (G5-6, different last name) and they gave him lots of respect after that. The year after, the school started a buddy system where the younger kids were attached to older kids, and the oldest were there to be models; it did a great job stopping bullying. Edit: verb is/are
Petra 9 months ago
It's good to hear that the school did something to help fix the problem!
Load More Replies... The Redhead 9 months ago
My daughter had a minor speech delay (she's 6 & never stops talking now lol) anyway at 2.5 she started speech therapy. For some reason she didn't relate well to the first therapist; don't know why she was a nice lady & good with her, but my daughter refused to speak when with her; I was allowed to observe the sessions that's how I know the therapist was good to her.This was during covid so the therapist would get her from the car & bring her back afterwards. One day she brought her out & I was talking to the therapist who said she still wouldn't talk. As I buckled her into her car seat she looked at me & the therapist and said one word "home". We were both happy & proud of her.
Happy Sunshine Panda 9 months ago
what is with all these people in the comments saying, “and then everyone clapped 🙄” like is a child being a smartass really that unbelievable to you?
FluffyDreg 9 months ago
No obviously kids are completely incapable of cussing
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