Mom Feels Like She Had No Other Choice & Calls Police On Son's Friend Who Wouldn't Go Home

Jan 18, 2023 by apost team

Often, we find ourselves in tricky situations where it can be hard to decide a course of action. Unfortunately, that happened to one woman who anonymously posted about her story to Reddit's AITA subreddit. 

Her story concerned her 13-year-old son, Brian, and his friend, Tom, who was the same age. The mother expressed that she felt Tom wasn't a true friend to her son and only used him to play his Nintendo Switch. However, since her son is on the autism spectrum and doesn't have many friends, she has put up with Tom hanging around their house and staying for sleepovers. 

But during Tom's most recent visit, after Brian had asked him to leave following a lengthy sleepover, Tom refused. After another attempt by Brian, Tom was still there. This was when the mother got involved and asked Tom to leave herself. But instead of listening to the adult in the situation, Tom straight up told her that he wouldn't be leaving. 

The mom tried unplugging the gaming console, but Tom was able to continue using it as a handheld device. The mom tried calling Tom's mother, but she rebuffed her, as she was busy at the time and couldn't come to pick her son up.

Feeling as if she had no choice left, the mother called the local police — they live in a small town, and the officer was a family friend — and he came over to escort Tom out of their house. Unsure if she had done the right thing in the situation, the mother took to Reddit for advice, where she was met with mixed responses. 

The mom began her post, as per Indy100, in a direct manner, writing:

"My son, Brian (13) has a friend, Tom (13) who I really dislike."

She explained that Tom appeared to have never been disciplined in his life and was under the impression he never faced any consequences for his actions. Despite having told her son that she thought Tom was only using him for his Nintendo Switch, Brian was unable to process this as he is on the autism spectrum and "very few other children want to hang out with him." She explained, "Every time Tom comes over, he'll hog the Switch to play one of the games (often times a single-player game)."

On one weekend, Tom came over and spent the entire evening gaming until 3 a.m. He woke up at 10 a.m., but instead of joining the family for breakfast, he continued gaming. By midday, Brian "had reached his limit and told Tom that it was time to go home." Tom ignored him, leading Brian to ask his mother for advice. She told him to be more "assertive," but one hour later, he returned "basically in tears," as Tom "was just ignoring him or giving him short 'a little more' answers."

The mother then took over and told Tom she would drive him home, but he said he would walk the two miles instead. She continued:

"I told him that he had to go home, and the kid legitimately looked me in the eye and said 'No, I don't think I will.'"

She then tried calling Tom's mother, but she couldn't talk. The mom then unplugged the Nintendo from the wall, which turned the game off, but Tom was able to switch to handheld mode and plonked himself in Brian's beanbag chair, "impervious to anything (they) said."

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Feeling like she had exhausted all her options, the mom then called the police. Since they lived in a small town, the local officer was a good friend, and he came over promptly. After telling Tom there had been "complaints of trespassing," Tom said he had been invited, but the mom assured the officer they "had asked him to go home."

The officer asked Tom "if he wanted to be charged with misdemeanor trespassing," which ultimately led the boy to get "his act together" before he was taken home by the police. On his way out, the mom told Tom that he would never step foot in her house again and asked him not to talk to Brian at school or text him privately.

One hour later, Tom's mom called her, shrieking about how "horribly" she had treated her son. The mother remained calm and explained that she'd called her but was told, "she was busy in a meeting and couldn't talk." She believed Tom fed his mom a lie-filled story, but she didn't have the energy to argue, so instead, she told her to get her act together as a parent and hung up. Since then, she said she received "dozens of anger-filled texts" from Tom's mom and unknown numbers, leading her to wonder if she had done the wrong thing.

Many commenters wrote that the mom was not the person in the wrong in the situation, but just as many others pointed out that she could have tried a few other options, including informing Tom's mom that she was about to call the police, taking the handheld console out of his hands and even enforcing stricter rules from the get-go rather than waiting until the situation reached such an extreme.

What do you think about the mother's actions? Was her decision to call the police too extreme? Let us know, and pass this story on so others can weigh in on it, too.