This 33-year-old woman has an 11-year-old niece named Breanna. Breanna is growing up, and over the past few months, she has reached the stage of her life where she needs to shower regularly and start wearing deodorant.
Her 35-year-old brother Kyle and herself both struggled with personal hygiene growing up because it’s not something that their parents really taught them how to manage.
This led to quite a bit of bullying toward her and her brother, and one time, a bar of soap was left on Kyle’s desk, along with directions on how to use it.
That childhood memory is something that has stuck with Kyle ever since and caused him to be super vigilant when it comes to teaching his children about cleanliness. However, sometimes, she feels that Kyle’s approach is a bit harsh.
“He tends to shame his kids a lot when it comes to this stuff. [His wife and I] have talked to him about it, but he says he’s just protecting his kids from going through what he did,” she explained.
One weekend, she, her husband, her 2-year-old daughter, Kyle, his wife, and his kids all went out for lunch together. When she greeted Breanna with a big hug, she noticed that she smelled pretty strongly of body order, but she didn’t say anything and just gave her a grin.
Breanna sat down between her and Kyle, and she wondered how Kyle hadn’t noticed anything before then, thinking that perhaps the car ride there was just a warm one.
Soon enough, Kyle noticed the smell and loudly asked Breanna if she had put on deodorant that day. Clearly embarrassed, Breanna mumbled and said that she had forgotten about it. Kyle sighed out of annoyance and told her that it was disgusting.
“His wife told him to cut it out and said they could discuss it with her later. I rubbed Breanna’s arm and whispered it was okay. Sometimes we forget these things; it’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” she said.
A while later, Breanna lifted her arms up in order to reach something, and Kyle again made rude comments along with a grossed-out face, telling Breanna that she could not go out in public in that state.
She questioned Kyle as to how this was helping the situation at that moment, and he claimed that he was just trying to help Breanna understand how to take care of herself.
With Breanna about to cry, she could not tolerate Kyle’s behavior anymore. She told him that the way he was handling this was no better than the children who used to bully him for the same issue.
Both Breanna and Kyle’s 14-year-old son looked confused, as if they had never heard of their father’s history of being a victim of bullying due to his smell growing up.
So, she proceeded to tell the story to the children, and while Kyle seemed embarrassed and quiet for the rest of lunch, Breanna appeared to feel a bit better.
“Kyle later told me I overstepped my boundaries, and that wasn’t my story to tell. I asked how it was any different from loudly humiliating his daughter. My husband thinks I wasn’t wrong to stand up for Breanna, but how I went about it was bad,” she stated.
What do you think about the way she went about defending her niece? Do you think Kyle’s approach to teaching personal hygiene is good, or is it too harsh?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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