She Decided To Start Teaching Her Son Ballet Without Telling Her Husband, And Now He Wants Their Son Pulled Out Of The Classes
This woman is a retired ballerina, but she still teaches dance to young children. She and her husband have an 8-year-old son who enjoys watching her dance while she teaches lessons in their living room. When her son said that he wanted to learn ballet, she eventually agreed to teach him.
Her son is the only boy who attends her lessons, but he is having a blast. She isn’t sure if he’ll continue dancing for as long as she did, clarifying that that would be up to him as he grows up. However, she’s happy to teach him for as long as he seems to want to continue.
“If he ever wants to quit, he can do so without questions. I didn’t inform my husband about our son’s new activity because he has a very traditional view that certain things are for specific genders. This weekend, my son accidentally spilled the beans,” she said.
After their son let it slip that she was teaching him ballet, her husband told their son to go to his room so that the two of them could have a conversation. Her husband was angry and thought their son learning ballet was a terrible idea.
“He stated that our son would be a target for bullying in ballet and considered weak or feminine by other kids. He tried to convince me to pull our son out of classes, saying it would be one thing if he were a girl, but he’s not,” she explained.
Then, her husband hinted that she was pressuring their son to take on her passions. Her husband’s argument bothered her because she explained that anyone with knowledge of ballet was well aware of the fact that ballerinas are not “weak” by any stretch of the imagination.
She pointed out that male dancers have intense upper body strength. In addition, she was offended by her husband’s prejudiced and old-fashioned opinions.
In her view, his accusing her of pressuring their son to learn ballet crossed the line. While she acknowledged that her teaching ballet was part of why he wanted to learn how to dance in the first place, she didn’t persuade their son to learn as her husband assumed.
“Being my son, he’s naturally been exposed to ballet more than the average child, so he’s more likely to be interested. We both agreed our son could stay with me to avoid hiring a babysitter, as he thought it would be a ‘waste of money,'” she shared.
pucko_ns – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Because their son has been around her so much and watched her dance on a regular basis, her husband should understand why their son wants to learn ballet.
She knew that he was concerned about their son and wanted to avoid potential bullying in their son’s future, but he was misguided by his belief in rigid gender roles. It was clear that her husband wasn’t aware of how damaging this view was.
During their conversation, she let him know that it wouldn’t be a good idea to talk their son out of learning ballet, but her husband didn’t agree.
They bickered back and forth for a while, but her husband had to go to work, and they didn’t want their son to hear any of their argument.
What advice would you give her?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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