She Set Up A Tent For Her Foster Daughter To Use As A Safe Space Whenever Things Became Overwhelming, But She Did Not Allow Her Nieces And Nephews To Use It On Christmas, So Now Her Whole Family Is Mad At Her

This woman and her husband have four biological children together– two daughters and two sons. Their eldest daughter, Allie, is seventeen, followed by their eldest son, Andrew, who is fifteen. Then their younger daughter is a twelve-year-old named Charlotte, and their youngest son, Lucas, is nine.
On top of raising four kids, she and her husband have also been fostering a six-year-old named Emily for nearly a year.
Now, according to her, Emily has special needs and gets overwhelmed easily. So, whenever that happens, the six-year-old will hide. And Emily has become a pro at it.
“Emily is very small and a master at getting herself into tight spaces– under the couch, inside kitchen cabinets, inside doll houses, etc.,” she explained.
So, whenever the six-year-old tucks herself away, it can take an indefinite amount of time to find Emily.
Sometimes, Emily will even lock the door of the room that she is hiding in to make finding her that much more difficult.
Obviously, though, this was not a safe way to cope with feelings of stress or overstimulation. In turn, she and her husband began researching other options and ultimately purchased Emily a tent shortly after taking her in.
Apparently, they even let Emily pick out everything, too– including the tent itself and the mat that goes on the floor, to the books and toys that are stored inside.
She thought that by giving this safe space to Emily, the six-year-old could use it as an escape.

dtatiana – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
In order for the space to truly feel like Emily’s, though, she also believed that the six-year-old had to have some control over the tent– which is located in the corner of the living room. So, no one else is ever allowed inside without Emily’s permission.
“It’s one of the few places where she can’t lock a door, and we can see her in the tent from most placed in the house,” she added.
Anyway, she ended up hosting Christmas this year at her house. So, before all of the guests arrived, she and her husband told Emily to put away any toys that other people were not allowed to play with.
And Emily ended up putting some items in the tent and some in her room. The six-year-old also insisted on locking the door to her bedroom.
Then, once everyone showed up for the holiday, Emily ended up going to hide in the tent and play with some new toys.
She and her husband also took the time to explain to the other children that the tent was Emily’s special place. Moreover, no other kids were allowed to hang out inside or play with any of the toys.
Now, she does admit that some of the other children got upset. However, she and her husband had other toys for them to play with. Plus, her son Lucas was also willing to share his toys.
Throughout the Christmas get-together, though, it appears that her siblings were actually even more upset than the children themselves.
In fact, she apparently got approached by her siblings multiple times– asking why she would put something as tempting as a tent filled with toys right in front of the kids while banning them from using it.
So, she had to keep explaining how the tent was just a way to prevent Emily from endangering herself. She also pointed out how the tent could not be kept anywhere else because, then, Emily would not be visible from most places in the house.
Eventually, though, she did get Emily out of the tent to interact with everyone. But, at that point, a few of the other kids tried to make their way into the tent.
So, she was forced to be the bad guy and tell the children that they were not allowed inside when Emily was not present. She also closed up the space and put duct tape over the zipper. That way, none of the kids would be able to open up the tent.
Right after she and her family finished eating Christmas dinner, though, some of her siblings left immediately– apparently because of the whole tent debacle. Then, those who stayed also started berating her for “taunting” the rest of the kids with Emily’s tent.
So, ever since the holiday, most of her family has been mad at her. In fact, even her parents agree that what she did was rude. Plus, they actually want to host the holidays moving forward, so Emily is unable to have the tent at all.
Anyway, this severe backlash has forced her to reflect on how everything went down on Christmas. And now, she has been left wondering if keeping Emily’s tent in plain sight and refusing to let the other children play in it makes her a total jerk or not.
Do you think the tent was a great idea to give Emily a safe space that is supervisable? Why do you believe her siblings were not understanding of the circumstances? Did she have a right to maintain Emily’s tent’s privacy and bar the other children from using it? If you were in her shoes, how would you handle this situation?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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