One mother recently turned to Reddit for advice after a late-night incident with her son’s friends left her feeling both guilty and justified. Posting on Reddit’s AITAH forum, the 48-year-old nurse described how what began as a simple request for quiet spiraled into a confrontation, ultimately ending with her asking one of her son’s friends to leave her home.
The woman, who works long hours as a nurse, began by setting the scene. “I work full-time and I’m often exhausted, but I keep my home in order,” she explained. She added, “Not a mansion or anything but it’s clean and it’s mine and I like my peace.”
Her 16-year-old son, referred to as “Jake,” had invited a couple of friends over one evening. As most teens do, the boys spent their time hanging out in the living room, “playing xbox or whatever, eating chips and yelling like usual,” as she put it.
For the mom, the timing couldn’t have been worse. After completing a grueling day shift, she was due back at the hospital the following morning. Around 10:30 p.m., the noise became too much for her to unwind.
She decided to politely intervene. “I didn’t yell, I just said, ‘Hey guys, can we turn it down a little?’ Real casual,” she recalled. The teens agreed without any pushback, and she headed back to her bedroom, expecting her request to be respected.
However, just minutes later, she overheard one of Jake’s friends openly mocking her. “Liam,” as she identified him, made a dismissive comment to the group: “Bro, your mom’s being a buzzkill tonight.” The remark sparked laughter among the teenagers, and the mother lay in bed stunned. “I just kinda laid there like… really? In my house??”
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Unable to let the disrespect slide, she re-entered the living room to address the situation head-on. Looking directly at Liam, she told him, “You’re a guest in my house. If asking you to be respectful is too much, maybe you don’t need to be here tonight.”
She admitted she might have sounded firm, but stood behind her words. “He looked all awkward and mumbled a sorry, and I said, ‘yeah alright, I think it’s time to head out.’”
The room fell silent, and Liam left. Jake did not say anything at the moment, but later accused his mother of embarrassing him and overreacting. From his perspective, she had “kicked out his friend for no reason.”
The mom, however, was torn between feeling justified and second-guessing herself. “I’m sitting here wondering if I was too harsh,” she admitted online. She acknowledged being drained that day and wondered if her exhaustion heightened her response, but she also felt strongly that the disrespect in her own home crossed a line. “Like yeah maybe I could’ve let it slide, but also—it’s my damn house?? I’m not gonna be disrespected like that just cause I asked for some quiet.”
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On Reddit, commenters largely reassured her that she wasn’t in the wrong. One user wrote, “Your son should have asked his friend to respect your need for rest when he rudely mouthed off about not being able to do what he wanted in someone else’s home. NTA.”
Another one added, “I would have a chat with your son about what it’s like to work all day in your job. And for the record, my parents would never put up with that type of talk in their house and their jobs weren’t nearly as physically exhausting. We kids respected what they were doing for us.”
The supportive responses gave her some relief. She replied to commenters with appreciation, writing, “Thanks… I’ll talk to him. Maybe there’s some a——ness on both sides.”
Her post shows how parenting can be a tricky business, especially when teenagers are involved as there is a lot of room for miscommunication even about the simplest things.
