My sister is a helicopter parent who is incredibly fearful and paranoid when it comes to safety. She never allowed her children (18M, 12M, 9F) to go on school field trips, out of fear that they would get lost or kidnapped. She also insists that the two younger children sleep in the same bedroom as her every night, so that she can keep an eye on them and monitor their safety. Furthermore, my sister does not allow the 12 year-old and 9 year-old to read Harry Potter, thinking that it is "dark" and "scary" and will traumatize them.My 13 year-old daughter thought this was ridiculous. When my sister's family came over for the summer, my daughter showed her 2 cousins her set of Harry Potter books. They would hide in her closet and read through one book after another, without anyone knowing. The 3 kids even had their own "alarm system." Whenever an adult was approaching the room, my daughter would knock in a certain way, and my niece and nephew would quickly hide the Harry Potter books and pretend they were doing some other activity.This went on for quite some time, until one day the 9 year-old was a tad bit slow, and I accidentally glimpsed her in the act of stuffing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince under a stack of towels.Even though I have absolutely no problem with my children reading Harry Potter, and also disagree with many parts of my sister's parenting philosophy, I felt that she had the right to know. I reported to my sister that her 9 year-old and 12 year-old were secretly reading Harry Potter, and that this had clearly been going on for quite some time---seeing that I caught them reading Book Six.My daughter was kind of upset with me for snitching on her cousins. I tried to explain to her that although we may disagree with her aunt's parenting philosophies, she has the legal right to decide her children's reading material. Whether or not we agree with how she exercises her parental authority, we must respect that she has that authority and avoid challenging her. My daughter responded by saying something about the American Revolution, and how dumb rules are meant to be challenged.AITA for snitching on my niece and nephew? via /r/AmItheAsshole https://ift.tt/3j7BXvy
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