Mother Gets Furious After 18 Y.O. Girl In Neighborhood Refuses To Sleep Over With Her Autistic Son Of Same Age

• By Malaika
• March 30, 2024
• 5 minutes read

“No” is a complete sentence.

People-pleasers find it difficult to explicitly say no to anything. However, there are times when your safety is called into question, and you must remain firm in those situations. For example, you may not feel comfortable sleeping over at your neighbour’s house. Nobody can force you to do something you do not want to, no matter your reasoning. I understand that when you say no, people always want to know why, but when you say yes, they quickly agree, but that is not how it should be.

That is essentially what the following story is about. You see, the original poster (OP) of this story has long been friends with a neighbouring classmate who is autistic. The latter part isn’t particularly important, but it will come into play later on. OP later realises that the boy has a crush on her, and she is unsure how to react. Even if she liked him back, this would be a difficult situation for anyone to navigate, but the boy’s mother apparently did not understand this.

Scroll down to read the entire story.

Source: Reddit

OP is worried about the fact that she rejected the request to sleep over at the neighbour’s house.

OP has an autistic classmate who is also her classmate, and she has known him for three years.

Things were going well until she learned that he had a crush on her, and everything turned awkward after that.

Because of the gossip, a lot of people knew about his crush, and everyone kept pushing them together, which made OP uncomfortable.

Then she was asked to stay over at the neighbour’s house, and it wasn’t anything new as she had done this before.

Via Reddit

However, OP wasn’t comfortable with the sleepover and said as much to the boy’s mother.

The mother kept asking for the reason, so OP decided to be truthful to her.

Rather than understand OP, the mother got angry at her for assuming things about her autistic son.

Now, OP isn’t sure how to resolve this situation, and she is also feeling guilty for unintentionally implying that it is because of his autism.

The reason she thinks she might be in the wrong is that she might have accepted the sleepover request before when she didn’t know about the crush.

Via Reddit

I understand why OP feels guilty because the boy’s mother made her feel this way, but I do not believe she did anything wrong. It is up to her to decide whether or not to stay, and no one should force her. I also understand the mother’s point of view, as she is probably tired of people making assumptions about autism as a whole.

However, becoming angry with the OP was not the best decision at the time. It makes no difference whether the OP is in danger or not; what matters is that she said no, which should always be a complete sentence.

People in the comments were 100% on her side.

To be fair, it is not really that appropriate for a young girl to stay alone at a guy’s house.

She doesn’t have to explain her reasons.

The mother might have known about the crush.

I hope that OP’s parents were at least on her side.

I am not sure I agree with the babysitting part, though.

Via Reddit

His being autistic isn’t really that important to the crux of this issue.

The mother should have understood when she said no.

The mother was wildly out of line.

I am not sure what was going through his parent’s minds.

Via Reddit

What are your thoughts on how the OP handled the situation? Do you think she should have been quiet about her reasoning when speaking with her mother? Do you think she did the right thing by telling the truth? Have you ever encountered a similar situation? If so, what did you do? Comment below to let us know, and don’t forget to share this story with your friends so they can add their thoughts as well.